Government Shutdown; New Jobs Added Exceeds Expectations; Beats "Magic Number" Of 200,000; Hell Freezes Over; Unemployment Back Up; Back Up To 7.3%

Regular readers know, with regard to "job watch," the magic numbers.


The Magic Numbers

First time claims, unemployment benefits: 400,000 (> 400,000: economic stagnation)

New jobs: 200,000 (< 200,000 new jobs: economic stagnation)

And, of course, I've never seen a "new jobs" number greater than 200,000 (and apparently neither has Yahoo!News based on the fact that it is a headline story at the moment. The number is 204,000 newly added jobs; higher than expected.

The U.S. economy added 204,000 jobs in October -- more than double the consensus -- and hiring for September and August were revised up by a combined 60,000, according to the Labor Department.

But get this: it occurred during the US government shutdown. Speaks volumes.

Later we will learn that all those furloughed US government workers went out and found temporary jobs doing the same thing for contractors still paid by the government. I assume a lot of the IT folks were hired by Ms Sebelius when she realized she was in deep do-do. (Is that how "deep do-do" is spelled?)