The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy lost another 19,000 jobs in September, the third consecutive monthly decline, the U.S. Labor Department reported on October 6.
Not surprisingly, within the durable goods category, most of the job losses came in wood products, non-metallic mineral products and furniture, industries that are related to home building. U.S. home building has been in dramatic decline for several months.
Job losses continued to occur among several industries in the nondurable manufactured goods sector, namely textile mills, plastics and paper products.
Overall, the non-farm sector of the economy, of which manufacturing is a part, added jobs in September but fewer than half the 120,000 jobs that economists generally expected. What's more, the 51,000 jobs added in September were only about one-third of the 150,000 monthly average needed just to keep up with population growth.
The U.S. unemployment rate in September was 4.6%, down a tenth of a percentage point from August's 4.7%.
