(Kitco News) - The gold market is trying to hold its ground well above initial support at $4,000 an ounce as extremely outdated employment data shows some resilient strength in the U.S. labor market.
After the 43-day government shutdown – the longest in history – the U.S. Labor Department has finally released September’s nonfarm payrolls data, which showed the economy created 119,000 jobs. The employment gains beat expectations; consensus forecasts called for job growth of 53,000.
However, the unemployment rate increased more than expected, rising 4.4%. Economists were expecting to see an unchanged reading at 4.3%.
Despite the increase, the Labor Department said that the labor market has shown little change since April.
Although the headline data rose more than expected, revisions to employment data during the summer continued to show a slowing labor market. August’s employment numbers were revised down, showing a contraction of 4,000 jobs. At the same time, July’s numbers were revised down to 72,000 jobs, compared to the previous estimate of 79,000.
The gold market is not seeing any major reaction to the extremely data employment data. Spot gold last traded at $4,081.70 an ounce, up 0.12% on the day.
While the government has released September employment numbers, it has said that it will not be releasing any data for October. Because of the government shutdown, the U.S. Labor Department would only be able to collect limited October data and would not be able to compile the unemployment rate.
Although September’s employment numbers were better than expected, many economists are ignoring the data, noting that it is to dated. Private-sector employment data released earlier this month have shown a clear slowing trend in the U.S. labor market.
The report also noted that wage growth in September was fairly subdued. Average hourly wages increased by nine cents or 0.2% to $36.67, slightly missing expectations. Economists were calling for a 0.3% increase.
“Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.8 percent,” the report said.
