NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a near four-year low of 7.8 percent in September, a potential boost to President Barack Obama's re-election bid.
STORY: TABLE GRAPHIC: COMMENTS: SEAN INCREMONA, ECONOMIST, 4CAST LTD, NEW YORK:
"There is a lot of stuff going on in this report. The headline doesn't look very inspiring but there was a big upward revision to the previous month that is mainly effecting the government sector. The underlying private payrolls growth is unimpressive, lower than expected in September and soft beforehand. Oppositely there was a big decline in the unemployment rate with a pretty healthy breakdown there with employment and the labor force higher.
"Generally we are still seeing a mixed underlying picture that is neither too impressive nor terrible."
ROBBERT VAN BATENBURG, HEAD OF GLOBAL RESEARCH, LOUIS CAPITAL MARKETS, NEW YORK
"The household employment jumped up strongly. That's an important move. These are not government jobs. It's an impressive number."
DAVID MANN, SENIOR CURRENCY STRATEGIST, STANDARD CHARTERED, NEW YORK
"After the upward headline revisions, the payroll numbers are not as weak as people might think. Also, there's a lower jobless rate."
MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures rose . BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices tumbled . FOREX: The dollar gained versus the yen and euro .
(Americas Economics and Markets Desk; +1-646 223-6300)
Keywords: USA ECONOMY/PAYROLLS