Friday: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

At 8:30 AM ET on Friday, the employment report for August will be released. The consensus is for an increase of 125,000 non-farm payroll jobs in August, down from the 163,000 jobs added in July. The consensus is for the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 8.3%.

Some previews:

From Tim Duy at EconomistsView: Fed Watch: Quick Employment Report Preview

From me: Employment Situation Preview

From Nelson Schwartz at the NY Times Economix: Betting on Job Growth

[C]hief United States economist at Morgan Stanley, Vincent Reinhart, raised his prediction for Friday’s government report to 125,000 total nonfarm payroll jobs from an earlier estimate of 100,000.

From the WSJ Real Time Economics: Jobs Gain of 200,000 Still Isn’t Enough

TrimTabs Investment Research, usually a Sad Sack when it comes to job estimates, said its calculations of tax-withholding data show August payrolls increased by a hefty 185,000.

And two more questions for the September economic contest: