U.S. Jobs Report Looks Good but Greece Fears Weigh on Markets

Still, the October jobs report was a relatively positive note for the U.S. economy, said Anthony Karydakis, adjunct professor of economics at the Stern School of Business of New York University and senior economist at Commerzbank, in an analyst vote.

“The key message from today’s employment data is that labor markets remain in appreciably better shape than it had appeared in the previous couple of months,” Karydakis said. “Not only did private payrolls, still the better gauge of demand for labor in the economy, rise by 104,000 in October, but the prior two months were revised sharply higher by a total of 84,000 (the upward revision to headline payrolls was 102,000). The bottom line is that the pace of hiring in recent months has not suffered nearly as much as had initially appeared based on the preliminary data for the summer months.”                      

Looking more closely at the October jobs figures, Karydakis noted that manufacturing turned out a small gain, with 5,000 new jobs, while retail trade, education/health care, and leisure/hospitality all posted solid gains. State and local governments continued to shed jobs, down 26,000, at pace similar to the one that has prevailed all year.

“All in all, the report confirms the premise that the economic recovery has enough momentum to continue forward at a moderate to relatively respectable pace of 2.5% to 3.0% and shows no signs of fizzling,” Karydakis said. “The main risk ahead to the recovery remains the possibility of exogenous shock waves stemming from the eurozone debt crisis, an outcome impossible to handicap sensibly at this point.”

Read about last month’s U.S. jobs report at AdvisorOne.com