Economy Sheds 95,000 Jobs

The Labor Department announced Friday that the U.S. economy lost 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September, higher than the 8,000 loss anticipated by Wall Street economists. But the Dow Jones industrials rose over 11000 on Friday for first time since May as traders hoped the data would motivate the Fed to act. Jobs growth was underwhelming as well, with private-sector nonfarm employment expanding by 65,000 in September, as opposed to an expected 85,000. On the plus side, economists had forecast the unemployment rate to rise to 9.7 percent, but it remained steady at 9.6 percent, and earnings are up 1.7 percent in the past year.