U.S. Jobs Report Could Be Impacted by Hurricane Season

According to the Labor Department, about 8% of U.S. workers are in counties that were hit by the storms

Author:: Edward Hardy
Publish date:: Oct 6, 2017 7:13 AM EDT

U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed start for Wall Street on Friday, Oct. 6, ahead of a U.S. jobs report for September that likely skewed hirings lower because of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

According to the Labor Department, about 8% of U.S. workers are in counties that were hit by the storms.

Economists polled by FactSet expect the U.S to have added just 80,000 jobs last month, a sharp slowdown from the 156,000 jobs added in August. The measure hasn't fallen below the 100,000 mark since March and has only been below that threshold four times in the past five years. The unemployment rate in September is expected to hold steady at 4.4%.

The floods that ravaged parts of Florida and Texas will make it especially tough for economists to estimate the jobs number for September, said TheStreet's Jim Cramer.

Investors will want to see a strong enough jobs report to justify the Federal Reserve raising interest rates again in December, Cramer added. Of course, the Fed will have several more jobs reports to weigh before that decision is made but September's data is still important for that meeting.

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