Yesterday, good economic data pushed stocks higher, with the Dow closing above 10,000. Today, the markets are likely to give up some of those gains as the news on the jobs front was worse than expected.
The Labor Department reported that employers shed 190,000 jobs in the month of October and the unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent. The drop in employment was led by construction, where employers shed 62,000 jobs. Manufacturing also saw big cuts in employment, with 61,000 less people on the payroll. Another sect
or which led employment down was the retail sector, where 40,000 jobs were cut.
Since the recession began in December 2007, employers have cut 7.3 million jobs. Not surprisingly, job losses have been extensive in the construction and manufacturing sectors. These two sectors combined for 3.7 million job cuts, or more than half of the total job losses.
Health care jobs continued to increase, climbing by 29,000. This is one sector that has shown job gains during the recession, with a total of 597,000 jobs added since the recession began.
In what is perhaps the only silver lining in a very big cloud, temporary employment increased by 44,000. Employers often add temporary workers when they believe business conditions are starting to improve but they want to be sure that a recovery will continue before bringing on permanent workers.
However, average hours worked remained constant at 33.0 hours. Factory workers increased their hours worked to 40.0, and the average number of overtime hours was 0.2. This is a counterpoint to the temporary workers number, since employers work their current employees more before they bring on new help.
Analysts had expected a drop in payrolls of 175,000, with some saying that the bigger than expected drop in the number of initial unemployment claims yesterday was a sign that the payrolls number would be better than expected. Estimates ranged from a drop of 250,000 jobs to a decline of 105,000. The unemployment rate was projected at 9.9 percent, with estimates ranging from 9.8 percent to 10.1 percent.
The continued weak labor market is one of the reason why the Fed feels that it can keep interest rates at record lows for an "extended period." Analysts said that the unemployment numbers are ugly and that it is very disappointing to see such a high level of unemployment this early in the recovery.
While jobs are normally a lagging indicator, some say that until the employment picture improves, there can be no sustained recovery. They say that with so much of the economy dependent on consumer spending, and consumers likely to hold their wallets tightly until the jobs picture improves, any recovery is going to be weak.
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The Labor Department reported that employers shed 190,000 jobs in the month of October and the unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent. The drop in employment was led by construction, where employers shed 62,000 jobs. Manufacturing also saw big cuts in employment, with 61,000 less people on the payroll. Another sect
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Since the recession began in December 2007, employers have cut 7.3 million jobs. Not surprisingly, job losses have been extensive in the construction and manufacturing sectors. These two sectors combined for 3.7 million job cuts, or more than half of the total job losses.
Health care jobs continued to increase, climbing by 29,000. This is one sector that has shown job gains during the recession, with a total of 597,000 jobs added since the recession began.
In what is perhaps the only silver lining in a very big cloud, temporary employment increased by 44,000. Employers often add temporary workers when they believe business conditions are starting to improve but they want to be sure that a recovery will continue before bringing on permanent workers.
However, average hours worked remained constant at 33.0 hours. Factory workers increased their hours worked to 40.0, and the average number of overtime hours was 0.2. This is a counterpoint to the temporary workers number, since employers work their current employees more before they bring on new help.
Analysts had expected a drop in payrolls of 175,000, with some saying that the bigger than expected drop in the number of initial unemployment claims yesterday was a sign that the payrolls number would be better than expected. Estimates ranged from a drop of 250,000 jobs to a decline of 105,000. The unemployment rate was projected at 9.9 percent, with estimates ranging from 9.8 percent to 10.1 percent.
The continued weak labor market is one of the reason why the Fed feels that it can keep interest rates at record lows for an "extended period." Analysts said that the unemployment numbers are ugly and that it is very disappointing to see such a high level of unemployment this early in the recovery.
While jobs are normally a lagging indicator, some say that until the employment picture improves, there can be no sustained recovery. They say that with so much of the economy dependent on consumer spending, and consumers likely to hold their wallets tightly until the jobs picture improves, any recovery is going to be weak.
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