Wall Street Focuses on Friday's Jobs Report

September 1, 2011 3:39 PM UTC
With just hours until Friday's all-important jobs number, economists are busy ratcheting down expectations.

The consensus for non-farm payroll over the last 24-hours has dropped from an expected 70,000 job additions to 65,000.

At least two economists cut their nonfarm payroll estimates Thursday. Goldman Sachs slashed it's jobs expectations from 50,000 additions to just 25,000 additions, which is 60 percent below consensus. SocGen cut its forecast from 67,000 additions to 9,000, or 86 percent below the consensus.

Goldman cited "a sharp deterioration in perceptions of job availability in the latest Conference Board survey, a drop in today's ISM manufacturing employment index, another drop in job advertising, and a soft ADP report."

The jobs report is expected out at 8:30am EDT Friday.

With the Federal Reserve on the cusp of announcing QE3, Wall Street is in its "bad news is good news" mood. So, a bad number could actually be interpreted positively.


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