Jobs picture: Stagnant, stubborn

jobs_100610.gi.top.jpgJob seekers attend a state-sponsored career and job resource fair in Denver, Colo. By Charles Riley and Annalyn Censky, staff reporters


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Looking ahead to Friday's government jobs report, the outlook doesn't look rosy. Two separate reports issued Wednesday paint a grim picture of the job market.

Private sector employers cut 39,000 jobs in September -- a turn toward the negative after the private sector added jobs for seven straight months before, according to a report by payroll processing firm Automatic Data Processing.

Those cuts surprised economists polled by Briefing.com who had expected the report to show 18,000 jobs added during the month.

"There simply is no momentum in employment," the ADP report said.

A separate report showed employers planned more job cuts in September, up from a 10-year low reported in August.

Employers said they would cut 37,151 jobs in September, a 7% increase from the 34,768 job cuts reported in August, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

ADP and Challenger's reports use different metrics, with ADP measuring only private sector job growth and Challenger compiling planned job cuts in the government and non-profit sectors as well as private industry.

The two reports set the stage for the government's closely watched jobs number due Friday, which economists also expect to bring gloomy news.

Consensus estimates from Briefing.com forecast the report to show the economy added no jobs in September, and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.7% from 9.6% in August.

Even though job statistics are often a volatile measure, the latest data is worrying and make a bigger case for a 10% unemployment rate, Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist with Capital Economics, said in a research note.

According to the Challenger report, September's planned cuts were most severe in the pharmaceutical and government and non-profit sectors.

In the private sector, construction and manufacturing accounted for the bulk of the job cuts, whereas the services industry actually hired more workers, ADP said. To top of page

Just the hot list include
Frontline troops push for solar energy
The U.S. Marines are testing renewable energy technologies like solar to reduce costs and casualties associated with fossil fuels. Play
25 Best Places to find rich singles
Looking for Mr. or Ms. Moneybags? Hunt down the perfect mate in these wealthy cities, which are brimming with unattached professionals. More
Fun festivals: Twins to mustard to pirates!
You'll see double in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Ketchup lovers should beware in Middleton, WI. Here's some of the best and strangest town festivals. Play
Index Last Change % Change
Dow 32,627.97 -234.33 -0.71%
Nasdaq 13,215.24 99.07 0.76%
S&P 500 3,913.10 -2.36 -0.06%
Treasuries 1.73 0.00 0.12%
Data as of 6:29am ET
Company Price Change % Change
Ford Motor Co 8.29 0.05 0.61%
Advanced Micro Devic... 54.59 0.70 1.30%
Cisco Systems Inc 47.49 -2.44 -4.89%
General Electric Co 13.00 -0.16 -1.22%
Kraft Heinz Co 27.84 -2.20 -7.32%
Data as of 2:44pm ET
Sponsors

Sections

Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands. More

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford charts her career path, from her first job to becoming the first openly gay CEO at a Fortune 500 company in an interview with CNN's Boss Files. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.