Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella on the Saturday Night Live of yore used to respond with a sheepish “Never mind” when proven wrong. That roughly approximates our reaction to this morning’s September employment report.
It turns out that the initial jobs report for August was wrong, and by more than a little. You may recall that the government’s first report for August showed the first net loss (-4,000) in nonfarm payrolls in four years. It wasn’t hard to jump to conclusions. But as we learned today, there was no loss in August, which actually posted a revised 89,000 gain. What’s more, the initial estimate for September showed a 110,000 rise in nonfarm payrolls–the highest since May.