In this Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, photo, Phil Wiggett, right, a recruiter with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, looks at a resume during a job fair in San Jose, Calif. On Friday, Oct. 6, 2017,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, photo, Phil Wiggett, right, a recruiter with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, looks at a resume during a job fair in San Jose, Calif. On Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, the U.S. government issues the September jobs report. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, photo, Phil Wiggett, right, a recruiter with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, looks at a resume during a job fair in San Jose, Calif. On Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, the U.S. government issues the September jobs report. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (Associated Press) In this Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, photo, Phil Wiggett, right, a recruiter with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, looks at a resume during a job fair in San Jose, Calif. On Friday, Oct. 6, 2017,... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. shed 33,000 jobs in September because of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which closed thousands of businesses in Texas and Florida and forced widespread evacuations. It was the first decline in nearly seven years. 
 
 The unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent from 4.4 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, the lowest level since February 2001. 
 
 Looking past the hurricanes' impact, the job market and economy generally look healthy. Job growth is likely to rebound in the coming months as businesses in the area reopen and construction companies ramp up repair and renovation work. 
 
 Last month's drop was driven by huge losses in restaurants and bars, which shed 105,000 jobs, a sign of the damage to Florida's tourism industry. 
 
 Roughly 1.5 million people were unable to work last month because of the weather, the government said, the most in 20 years. 
 
 Hourly workers who couldn't work and missed a paycheck were counted as not working, which lowered September's job totals. That's true even if those employees returned to work after the storm passed. 
 
 The unemployment rate fell because it is calculated with a separate survey of households. That survey counted people as employed even if they were temporarily off work because of the storms. 
 
 As a result, the drop in the jobless rate is a sign the job market improved outside hurricane-hit areas. The proportion of adults with jobs rose to 60.4 percent, the highest since January 2009. 
 
 Average hourly wages rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier, a solid gain. But the government said that figure was artificially inflated by the loss of so many lower-paid workers in hurricane-hit areas. 
 
 More than 11 million people had been employed in the 87 counties in Texas and Florida that were declared disaster areas, the government says. That's equal to about 7.7 percent of the nation's workforce. 
 
 Other recent indicators point to a solid economy and job market. 
 
 On Wednesday, a survey of services firms — covering restaurants, construction companies, retail stores, banks and others — found that they expanded in September at their fastest monthly pace since 2005. That followed a survey of manufacturers, which found an equally strong gain. Factory activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than 13 years. 
 
 There are signs that a rebound from the hurricanes is already boosting the economy. Auto sales, which had been lackluster this year, jumped 6.1 percent to more than 1.5 million in September from a year ago, according to Autodata Corp., as Americans began to replace cars destroyed by the storms. That increase in purchases should soon lead automakers to step up production. 
 
 Harvey caused about $76 billion to $87 billion in economic losses, according to Moody's Analytics, an economic consulting firm. The estimate includes damage to homes and businesses as well as lost business and economic output. That calculation would make Harvey the second-worst U.S. natural disaster, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 
 
 Irma will likely end up having caused $58 billion to $83 billion in economic losses, Moody's forecasts. Maria, which hammered Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, could cost $45 billion to $95 billion, though that is a preliminary estimate. 
 
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 This story has been corrected to show that September's job losses figure was the first decline in nearly seven years. ||||| In many ways, this is a pretty lousy report, but the market is treating it like a good one. 
 
 That's due in part to the average hourly earnings number, which rocketed higher in September. Traders have long looked particularly carefully at that measure of wages because so many economists have been confounded by the lack of wage growth in this otherwise hot labor market. 
 
 The 0.5% gain in average hourly earnings versus a month ago indeed shows an accelerated pace, but that's likely due in part to the effects of hurricanes. Economists point to the fact that many low-wage workers are unemployed during and after hurricanes, which can push up the overall wage number. We'll have to see if this holds up next month. 
 
 BMO Capital Markets rates strategist Ian Lyngen writes in a note to clients: "Treasuries are selling off however as the market looks past the weak headlines and focuses on AHE." 
 
 Another pocket of strength in the report: the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, it s lowest since 2001. And that number didn't fall because people are dropping out of the workforce. In fact, labor force participation actually rose. ||||| The U.S. economy was nicked by two summer hurricanes in September but is showing signs of underlying strength. 
 
 The country shed 33,000 jobs in September, the first loss in seven years, the Labor Department said Friday, ending the longest stretch of job growth on record. 
 
 But the picture was distorted by Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in...
– The new jobs report is a case of good news/bad news. The US lost 33,000 jobs in September after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit Texas, Florida, and other Southeastern states, which the AP reports is the first decline in almost seven years. However, the Labor Department says the unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.4%, the lowest level since February 2001. So what's going on? "Friday's report overall sent conflicting signals about the labor market, in part because it's based on separate surveys—one of employers, the other of households—that don’t always align precisely in any given month [but] typically point in the same direction over the longer term," explains the Wall Street Journal. Looking past the hurricanes' impact, the job market and economy generally look healthy, per the AP. Some economists expect job growth to rebound in the coming months as businesses in the area reopen and construction companies ramp up repair and renovation work. "People will write off the weak number because of the hurricanes," one economist tells the New York Times. "The underlying trend is still pretty strong." One good sign was that average hourly earnings, an important barometer, rose nearly 0.5%, though the Journal notes that if the hurricanes temporarily wiped out a lot of minimum wage jobs in the services industry, that would drive the overall number up. Next month will be a truer test.