Hope rises for August jobs report
Key report has ramifications for Obama and Bernanke
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A slew of surprisingly strong economic reports on Thursday raises the chances that Friday’s critical August employment report will be better than had been anticipated by Wall Street economists.
“The evidence is that the labor market is chugging ahead here. It is not great, but it is not falling apart either,” said Josh Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc.
The Labor Department is to release the August employment report Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Earlier this week, economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast the U.S. added a weak-to-moderate 120,000 jobs in August, down from an initial estimate of 163,000 in July. Read comprehensive MarketWatch calendar.
After the morning’s data were released, economists pushed up their forecast to 125,000.
The unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 8.3%, just where it was at the beginning of the year. The unemployment rate has been above 8% for 42 months. http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-09-06/ec...adp-survey