UNEMPLOYMENT LOWEST SINCE 1969 TRUMP APPROVAL RATINGS AT 51%

• The unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.7 percent, the lowest level since December 1969 and one-tenth of a percentage point below expectations.
• The closely watched average hourly earnings component showed a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase, in line with Wall Street estimates.
• August's initial jobs count was revised up dramatically, from 201,000 to 270,000, while July's numbers came up as well, from 147,000 to 165,000.

Unemployment among black Americans declined three-tenths of a point to 6 percent, slightly above its record low of 5.9 percent achieved in May.

"The labor market is in excellent shape heading into the end of 2018, perhaps the best it has been in 50 years," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC. "Job growth was a bit softer in September, but some of that was from Hurricane Florence, and it should bounce back through the rest of 2018 and into 2019."

After the report, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to the highest in seven years. Stock indexes edged higher at the open.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 38% who Strongly Approve of the president is performing and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -1. (see trends).

This is Trump’s highest Presidential Approval Index rating since early March of last year, shortly after he first took office.By comparison, Barack Obama earned a presidential approval index rating of -11 on October 5, 2010, in the second year of his presidency.