Big job upside, fly is the workweek and who knows what final figure will look like

Payrolls in September grew by 254k, about 100k more than expected and the two prior months were revised up by a combined 72k. The household survey said 450k net new jobs were created and because it exceeded the 150k person rise in the labor market, the unemployment rate ticked down by one tenth to 4.1%. The all in U6 rate fell by 2 tenths m/o/m to 7.7%. About half of the 450k came from the 16-19 yr old cohort as the 25-54 yr old grouping saw jobs rise by 48k. 55+ saw a gain of 111k.

Versus the prior month there was a pick up in hiring in leisure/hospitality, private education/health, retail and even information. Temp jobs though were lost again. Jobs in the finance space slowed. On the goods side, the manufacturing sector shed 7k after losing 27k in August. Construction continues to lead the hiring with government help.

Average hourly earnings rose .4% m/o/m, one tenth above the estimate and August was revised up by one tenth to .5% growth. Versus last year they are up 4% and which compares with the 2.5% annual trend pre Covid. The fly in all of this was the drop in the workweek to 34.2 from 34.3 and that matches the slowest since June 2010 not including Covid. Combining the two puts average weekly earnings up by .1% m/o/m and 3.4% y/o/y.