The BLS announced that employment fell by 263,000 for September:

Job losses continued in September, and the unemployment rate continued to trend up, reaching 9.8 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 263,000 over the month, and losses have averaged 307,000 per month since May. Payroll employment has fallen for 21 consecutive months, with declines totaling 7.2 million. In September, notable job losses occurred in construction, manufacturing, government, and retail trade.

The fact that the unemployment rate “only” rose to the expected level of 9.8% may ultimately be positive for the markets today, but as Calculated Risk points out, the preliminary benchmark payroll revision is minus 824,000 jobs- a very large, out-of-the-ordinary revision. The size of the revision may indicate the BLS is having difficulty maintaining a fiction.

Update: Even though the BLS may be having difficulty maintaining the fiction, they can still help Goldman Sachs out with advance looks at the release before everyone else. Yesterday, Goldman revised its estimate for employment to 250,000 from 180,000.  What are the odds?

Zero Hedge is skeptical of the BLS unemployment release, highlighting the seasonal adjustments made and the temporary hiring of census workers:

“I will bet one double Quarter Pounder with cheese and bacon that next month, the revisions of the April numbers will be on the order of an additional 85,000 unemployed. My guess is that, discounting the Census Bureau hirings, April saw 680,000 newly unemployed workers.’

Econompicdata generally concurs with Zero Hedge’s assessment.

According to the BLS, employers took 2,933 mass layoff actions, involving at least 50 persons from a single employer,  in March. These actions resulted that resulted in the separation of 299,388 workers, seasonally adjusted.

“The number of mass layoff events in March increased by 164 from the prior month, while the number of associated initial claims increased by 3,911. Over the year, the number of mass layoff events increased by 1,348, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 137,891. In March, the manufacturing sector experienced 1,259 mass layoff events, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 155,909 initial claims… Layoff events and initial claims rose to their highest levels on record, with data available back to 1995; events in the manufacturing sector also reached its highest level.”

The Forbes mass layoff tracker recorded only 37,429 layoffs by the largest 500 public companies for March, so the mass layoffs are from smaller companies…