Jobs Report: U.S. Loses 33,000 Jobs Amid Hurricane Disasters

NEW YORK, NY — Friday's jobs report is the story of two seemingly contradictory numbers. While the American economy saw payrolls decreased by 33,000 jobs in September — the first time the U.S. has seen a decrease since 2010 — the unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent, its lowest point since the great recession.

Many economists were expecting payrolls to grow in the range of 80,000 new jobs and unemployment to stay steady around 4.4 percent. The impact of multiple hurricanes wreaking havoc on parts of the southern United States may help explain the surprising figures.

"If you look at the household side of the data, everything here is good news," said Cathy Barrera, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. "The labor force participation rate is up slightly — the labor force participation level is up and the number of people not in the labor force is down."

Watch: Lost Jobs After Major Hurricanes Aren't Uncommon

She added: "In this case we are truly seeing more people move into the labor force." (For more i nformation on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"Because of the impacts from hurricanes and flooding, the decline reported in September payrolls doesn’t carry weight this time around," said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. "Case in point, the loss of more than 100K jobs in food and drinking establishments is surely only temporary."

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But for the deluged parts of the country, it's not all bad news.

"Economic data will be a bit waterlogged for a few more months, but the recovery and rebuilding effort in storm affected regions will boost growth, not subtract from it," Hamrick said.

Perhaps the best news of the report, however, is that wage growth is starting to look up. Hourly earnings of increased 2.9 percent in the last year, up from an average of 2.5 percent. Sluggish wage growth has been one of the most frequent justified complaints about the post-2008 economy.

"The boost to wage growth, if sustained, is truly good news," said Hamrick. "We know that there have been sectors and localities faring better than the norm, but this suggests that wage growth is spreading, finally."

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Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images