Nonfarm Payrolls Rise 128K and the Market Cheers
Investing.com - The latest jobs report gave the stock market everything it wanted, with strong payroll growth and tamer inflation.
The U.S. economy created more jobs than Wall Street expected in October, the Labor Department reported Friday, in an unusual month affected by the strike by workers at General Motors.
Stocks rose at the open of trading, with the S&P 500 rising 0.6%.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 128,000, compared with expectations for a rise of 89,000 according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com. September's hiring was revised up to 180,000 from an initially-reported 136,000.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6%, in line with forecasts.
“Put it all together, and this latest jobs report says the labor market is chugging along,” economist Justin Wolfers tweeted.
The GM (NYSE:GM) strike cut nonfarm payrolls by 42,000, so the gain would be 170,000 without the work stoppage. Workers on strike are not counted as employed in the survey.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2%, versus expectations for a rise of 0.3%, while average weekly hours came in at 34.4, matching estimates.
“Over the past three months, (the jobs report has) averaged an extra +176,000 jobs per month,” Wolfers said. “That's more than enough to keep pushing the unemployment rate down even further.”
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