Treasury yields are lower this morning after September hiring fell well short of expectations and the prior two months were revised down. Employers added just 29k jobs in September (est = 90k), and revisions took another 60k off July and August. Health care and social assistance have added 520k jobs over the past twelve months, more than the 496k added by the economy as a whole, which means every other sector combined has shed jobs over the past year. The unemployment rate did move higher, but mostly due to people returning to the labor force. Add the slowest annual wage growth in more than five years, and the case for a second straight rate hike on October 28 looks considerably weaker. In fact, markets are now pricing in only a 20% chance of a rate hike later this month, down from 65% on Monday of this week.
