Hurricanes effects on US job market, employment fell after seven years

US employment fell in September for the first time since 2010 as hurricanes Harvey and Irma took their toll on the jobs market. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, but the continued impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma on the data made it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market.

The US jobs market stalled in September, losing 33,000 jobs. It was the first time in seven years that the US monthly total had recorded a fall.

However, hurricanes did not affect the unemployment rate, which slipped to 4.2% – the lowest since February 2001. The US Labor Department uses separate surveys to capture payrolls data and the unemployment rate.

The US economy had added an average of 176,000 new jobs a month so far this year but as the labor department had predicted the storms, which caused fatal and catastrophic damage across Texas and Florida, slowed hiring.

But a loss in jobs was far worse than the 80,000 new jobs most US economists had expected would be created. It ends the longest stretch of uninterrupted jobs growth in US history. This was the first loss in jobs since September 2010.

Ahead of Friday’s jobs report the Bureau of Labor Statistics said some 11.2 million workers lived in the affected areas, about 7.7% of the US workforce. The unemployment rate, which was 4.4% in August, fell to 4.2%, a 16-year low.

This is the second month of disappointing growth in the US jobs market. In August the economy added 156,000 new jobs, below the 180,000 that had been expected by economists.

Puerto Rico, the US territory also devastated by the hurricanes, is not counted in the jobs report.