Fitch says one way to try to see through US employment volatility is to add the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimate of the impact of the strike (44,000) to October's employment growth data, and then take a three-month moving average, which is 119,000, a slowdown from the monthly average of 207,000 in the first half of the year, but far from a sharp decline. Given broader evidence of continued consumer power, the Fed is unlikely to give high priority to the overall 12,000 figure.