The Unemployment Rate for August increase to 9.7% as the number of unemployed persons increased by 446,000, and was expected to increase slightly to 9.5% from the 9.4% level in July, to the highest level in 25 years. Since the start of the recession in December of 2007, the number of unemployed persons increased by 7.4 million and the Unemployment Rate increased by 4.8%. Nonfarm Payrolls fell by 216,000, with layoffs much slower than expected with an anticipated drop by 228,000, after decreasing by 276,000 in July, revised from -247,000, and have fallen by 6.9 million since the start of the recession. The Average Workweek was maintained at 33.1 hours. Average Hourly Earnings increased by 0.3% over the month.
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Consumer Credit (09/08 at 3:00 PM EST)
Fed’s Beige Book (09/09 at 2:00 PM EST)
Trade Balance (0910 at 8:30 AM EST)
