The skanner., October 11, 2017, Page Page 12, Image 12

Page 12 The Skanner October 11, 2017
News
By Christopher Rugaber
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON— The
U.S. shed 33,000 jobs in
September because of
Hurricanes Harvey and
Irma, which closed thou-
sands of businesses in
Texas and Florida and
forced widespread evac-
uations. It marked the
fi rst monthly hiring drop
in nearly seven years.
The
unemployment
rate fell to 4.2 percent
from 4.4 percent, the
Labor Department said
Friday , the lowest lev-
el since 2001 and a sign
that the job market re-
mains
fundamentally
solid. Hiring is expected
to rebound in coming
months as businesses in
the Southeast reopen and
bring back employees,
and construction compa-
nies ramp up repair and
renovation work.
“The labor market re-
mains in good shape,”
said Gus Faucher, chief
economist at PNC Finan-
cial. “The job losses were
due to disruptions from
hurricanes, not underly-
ing weakness in the econ-
omy.”
Last month’s drop was
driven by huge losses
in restaurants and bars,
“
said, the most in 20 years.
Outside
of
hurri-
cane-hit areas, many
Americans found work.
The number of people
describing themselves
as unemployed fell to 6.8
million, the fewest since
March 2007, before the
Great Recession began.
That sign of health
makes it appear all but
certain that the Feder-
al Reserve will raise its
The job losses were due to
disruptions from hurri-
canes, not underlying weak-
ness in the economy
which accounted for
105,000 fewer jobs, a sign
of the damage to Flori-
da’s tourism industry.
Roughly 1.5 million peo-
ple were unable to work
last month because of the
weather, the government
benchmark short-term
interest rate in Decem-
ber. According to data
from the CME Group, in-
vestors now foresee a 93
percent chance of a Fed
rate hike then.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen
has said she expects pay
raises to accelerate as
unemployment declines.
That, in turn, might lift
infl ation closer to the
Fed’s annual 2 percent
target level if companies
raised prices to pay for
higher salaries.
Hourly workers who
couldn’t work because
of the storms last month
and missed a paycheck
would have been count-
ed as not working in the
government’s survey of
businesses, thereby low-
ering September’s job
total. That’s true even
if those employees re-
turned to work aft er the
storm passed or will re-
turn.
The
unemployment
rate fell because it is cal-
culated with a separate
survey of households.
That survey counted
people as employed even
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AP PHOTO/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ
Hurricanes Cause Rare Monthly US Job Loss, But Rebound Likely
In this Aug. 24 photo, Phil Wiggett, right, a recruiter with the Silicon
Valley Community Foundation, looks at a resume during a job fair in
San Jose, Calif. On Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, the U.S. government issued the
September jobs report, showing losses in hourly-wage jobs in states
aff ected by this fall’s hurricanes.
if they were temporar-
ily out of work because
of the storms. In fact,
the proportion of adults
who have jobs rose to
60.4 percent, the highest
since January 2009.
That’s a positive sign
that the low unemploy-
ment rate is pulling more
Americans off the side-
lines and back into the
job market. Many people
gave up searching for
work during the reces-
sion and the slow recov-
ery that followed.
Dan Harmon, chief op-
erating offi cer of Smooth-
ie King, a 900-store chain
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