The nation's unemployment rate held steady at 5.1-percent in September. But two top Indiana economists aren’t pleased with that trend.
Ball State Economist Mike Hicks says the economy added only 142,000 jobs last month. He says that's definitive evidence the economy is slowing.
Hicks says employment is only slightly ahead of expected population growth and that 300,000 people left the labor force. In short, he says twice as many workers quit looking for work last month compared to those who found jobs.
Hicks says he’s concerned about the entire report.
“It’s really hard to tease through the 60, 70 pages and find anything good,” Hicks says. “The most you can say is part-time jobs didn’t rise this year, this month. So, it’s just not a good jobs report.”
The U.S. Labor Department also revised downward job gains for July and August.
Bankrate's Mark Hamrick says economists generally like to see 300,000 jobs created every month to feel good about the economy.
“Employers added 142,000 jobs last month, coming in substantially weaker than expected and that now puts the rate for the year so far on average below 200,000 jobs a month,” Hamrick says. “That’s below the pace of 2014.”
Hamrick says global weakness is weighing more substantially on the U.S. economy. He says the budget stalemate in Washington and the looming debt ceiling issue in November aren't helping.
