Solid Statistics

While Friday’s job report showed 156,000 net new jobs created in September, below expectations of 168,000, private sector job growth was 167,000, barely under the 170,000 expected. Separately, the labor force participation rate increased to 62.9% from 62.8%, driving up the unemployment rate to 5% from 4.9%, hourly earnings rose and the average work week increased from 34.3 hours to 34.4. The rising unemployment rate lets rates stay lower longer.