The daily business briefing: October 6, 2017

Hurricanes caused economy to shed jobs last month, Netflix shares surge as it raises subscription rates, and more

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1. The economy lost 33,000 jobs last month

The U.S. economy lost 33,000 jobs in September due to the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the Labor Department reported Friday. It was the first monthly employment decline in seven years. Economists had expected employment to take a temporary hit from the storms, but they still expected a gain of about 75,000 non-farm jobs, down from 169,000 in August. The unemployment rate was not affected by the hurricanes, and dropped from 4.4 percent to 4.2 percent, the lowest level since December 2000. Average wages edged up by 12 cents to $26.55 an hour, while the average work week remained unchanged at 34.4 hours.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.