US economy lost 33,000 jobs in September, unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent

The US economy lost 33,000 jobs in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics which released its monthly jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2%.

Economists had expected the two destructive hurricanes that slammed into the US mainland in September to slow hiring, but they were unsure about the extent.

The consensus forecast according to Bloomberg was for 80,000 nonfarm payrolls, well below the trend of the past few months.

One forecaster even saw a net loss of 45,000 jobs, illustrating how wide the range of estimates was. According to UBS, the standard deviation of September payroll forecasts was twice as high as it's been in the past.