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US Jobs Dropped By 33,000 In September, Likely Due To Storms (npr.org)

Posted by msmash on from the where-we-are dept.

An anonymous reader shares an NPR report: The U.S. economy shed 33,000 jobs in September, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while unemployment fell to 4.2 percent. The September payrolls drop broke a nearly 7-year streak of continuous job gains. But economists caution that the drop is likely representing the short-term consequences of bad weather, not a long-term shift in the job market. Before this report, the economy had added an average of about 175,000 jobs per month; the unemployment rate has been at 4.3 or 4.4 percent since April. Job growth in September was expected to be lower than usual because of the effects of several devastating hurricanes. Economists did not generally predict an actual decline, but a not-so-stellar report was widely anticipated.

6 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. ...and in a month or two... by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given that the hurricane-stricken areas are in semi-tropical places where construction can (and probably does) happen year-round, I'm betting that there will be a massive boom in construction jobs coming in the next month or two, and lasting maybe 6 months or more. Someone's gotta rebuild all that stuff, after all...

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:...and in a month or two... by wiggles · · Score: 3, Informative

      fallacy fallacy fallacy.

      Fatcats don't hoard money - they invest it, creating further economic activity. The money doesn't leave the economy unless somebody sinks it into gold, art, or real estate.

    2. Re:...and in a month or two... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Reading fallacy. This entire chain is pointless, because Solandri started it all by not reading. OP didn't say there was going to be a big economic boom because of this. He said there was going to be "a massive boom in construction jobs". He labelled a specific area that was going to have a boom.

      Solandri's post was the equivalent of saying it's a fallacy that there was a dotcom boom or a housing boom or any other boom, because if those hadn't happened the money would have just been used somewhere else.

    3. Re:...and in a month or two... by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Informative

      I never stated that hurricanes were good for the economy, nor did I recommend destruction in order to stimulate said economy. I merely stated that a frigton of temporary jobs would come of it, and why.

      QED: I posted no fallacy here.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    4. Re:...and in a month or two... by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The money doesn't leave the economy unless somebody sinks it into gold, art, or real estate.

      Money spent on gold, art, and real estate stays in the economy. The guy you paid for the gold, art, or real estate now has a bunch of money he can spend on things.

      What matters is the overall productivity gain from what the money was spent on. That's why Enron's scam of selling the same equipment back and forth multiple times between two of its divisions didn't actually generate money. It inflated the accounting books, but because there was no productivity gain per transaction, it did nothing to help the company. For an economic transaction to be beneficial to the individual/company and the overall economy, it has to have a net productivity gain. The store which sells a hammer has to sell it for more than they paid for it (and to stock it). The carpenter who buys the hammer has to be able to use it to increase his carpentry business sales by more than he paid for the hammer.

      Gold is pretty bad in that respect because it doesn't do anything (unless you're using it to plate electronics for corrosion resistance). And in fact buying it for decoration can be a net negative on the economy since it drives up the price for gold used for productive purposes (like anti-corrosion plating). Art can be good if exhibiting it generates additional economic activity (people wanting to make/buy more art, people traveling to view it). Real estate can be good if you build something on it that generates more economic activity, or preserve it to allow something to continue to exist which generates or protects economic activity (e.g. land for anti-flood dikes).

  2. Re:Storms? by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Aren't we pretty sure it's Trump's fault?"

    That's just Twitter storms.