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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