It’s why they play the games.
On paper, there’s no way that the San Francisco Giants finish ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But after actually playing all the games, the Giants did.
On paper, there was no way that the U.S. economy added less than 200,000 jobs in September–after a strong private payrolls number the previous day from ADP Research and with economists predicting 500,000 jobs or more. But this morning’s report from the Labor Department said the September total was just 194,000.
Non-farm payrolls were expected to pick up from August’s weaker than expected 235,000, but instead September’s total showed the job market expanding at an even slower pace–although this morning’s report revised the August total to 366,000 and raised the July total up 38,000 to 1.091 million.
The unemployment rate dropped to 4.8% against an expected 5.1% rate and 5.2% in August. That wasn’t exactly U.S. good news since it came on a drop in the work force participation rate. More workers, especially woman with children, are dropping out of the workforce. The argument that the biggest boon to employment and the economy right now would be access to affordable childcare gets solid support in September’s date.
Average hourly earrings climbed 0.6% month over month against an expected increase of 0.4% and a revised 0.4% in August. Year over year average hourly earnings are up 4.6%. That good news too has a downside since it is partially a result in a lag in hiring for lower paid service sector workers.
