Economists expected the economy to add 100,000 new jobs this week, according to CNBC online. Instead, they got 163,000 new jobs. With that news the stock market jumped up, righ off the bat, gaining back all of yesterday’s losses and has continue to move up this morning.
But wait, there’s more! The raw number was actually a loss of 195,000 jobs. The reported number was adjusted using seasonal assumptions. Of course, the Dept. of Labor always does this and that is why you have to look at the moving average of job gains. Even that can be thrown off but it is much less volatile. I know, Wall St. wants data every week but it is so tinkered with its not worth much.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3%.