Given the hurricane's effects on employment, Neil Irwin expects a lot of noise in today's jobs report:
[H]ow can one parse from Friday's report what is really going on in the economy? One approach is simply to filter out the categories of employment that are most sensitive to disruption from the storm and holiday seasonal fluctuations, and focus on those that remain. Out goes manufacturing, construction, transportation and warehousing, wholesale, the retail industry, and leisure and hospitality. The categories that remain include mining and logging, information, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health care, other services, and government.
In October, those non-storm-sensitive sectors added a combined 68,000 jobs. For early evidence on whether the pace of economic recovery sped up or slowed down on Friday, look at what happened to that number in November.
The Dish 