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Thursday, November 06, 2014

Friday: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

by Calculated Risk on 11/06/2014 07:33:00 PM

Yesterday I posted a summary of the monthly October employment related data: Preview: Employment Report for October. Overall the data has been positive.

From Goldman Sachs economist Kris Dawsey:

We forecast nonfarm payroll job growth of 235k in October, in line with consensus and slightly above the three-month average of 224k. On balance, labor market indicators appear consistent with a solid underlying trend on job growth.
...
Back revisions have a strong tendency to be positive in the October report ... over the past five years, the average net two-month back revision has been +89k, the strongest of any month of the year. While we do not necessarily expect a revision of quite that magnitude this year (the average size of the revisions seems to have trended down a bit since 2010), we think the odds favor a substantial upward revision to August and September job growth.
...
we expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 5.9% in October ... This forecast assumes a roughly stable labor force participation rate. We forecast a 0.3% month-on-month gain in average hourly earnings, reflecting some degree of "catch-up" from last month's flat reading. An October increase in line with our forecast would leave the year-on-year rate at a still-subdued 2.1%.
That is an interesting comment on revisions, so here are the two-month revisions released in the last five October employment reports:

2009: Total +91,000 "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from -201,000 to -154,000, and the change for September was revised from -263,000 to -219,000."

2010: Total +110,000 "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from -57,000 to -1,000, and the change for September was revised from -95,000 to -41,000."

2011: Total +98,000 "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from +57,000 to +104,000, and the change for September was revised from +103,000 to +158,000."

2012: Total +84,000 "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from +142,000 to +192,000, and the change for September was revised from +114,000 to +148,000."

2013: Total +60,000 "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from +193,000 to +238,000, and the change for September was revised from +148,000 to +163,000."

Friday:
• At 8:30 AM, the Employment Report for October. The consensus is for an increase of 240,000 non-farm payroll jobs added in October, down from the 248,000 non-farm payroll jobs added in September. The consensus is for the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 5.9% in October. As always, a key will be the change in real wages - and as the unemployment rate falls, wage growth should eventually start to pickup.

• At 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for September from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $16.0 billion.