After reporting that September had generated the weakest job growth in 29 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimated Friday that the economy generated 271,000 seasonally adjusted new jobs in October. That was 268,000 private-sector jobs and 3,000 public-sector jobs. This was far above the consensus of experts surveyed ahead of time. October thus became the 68th straight month that new private jobs and 61st month that new public jobs have been added to the U.S. economy. The official unemployment rate fell 0.1 to 5.0 percent.
The bureau also revised numbers for September from 142,000 to 137,000 and August from 136,000 to 153,000. Last month's report had included downward revisions to previously estimated numbers for August and July.
The civilian workforce rose 216,000, after having fallen 350,000 in September. The employment-population ratio rose slightly to 59.3 percent, and the labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.4 percent.
After a flat September, wages for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents an hour in October to $25.20. Wages for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 9 cents an hour to $21.18
The strong showing may give the Fed reason to raise interest rates.
Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said earlier this week that a rate increase was a “live possibility” at the central bank’s Dec. 15-16 policy meeting if new data supported expectations for continued economic growth “sufficient to generate further improvements in the labor market and to return inflation to our 2% target over the medium term.”
In addition to the official unemployment rate (which the BLS labels U3), another measure (known as U6) estimates both
unemployment and
underemployment. It includes people with no job at all, part-time workers who want a full-time job but can't find one, and many "discouraged" workers. U6 fell in October 0.2 percent to 9.8 percent. The number of people officially unemployed remained unchanged at 7.9 million.
The BLS warns that its "confidence level" is plus or minus 105,000. That means the "real" number of new jobs created in October was not 271,000 but rather fell into a range between 166,000 and 376,000.
Another measure the bureau provides gauges the job situation each month for Americans aged 25-54. These are people in their "prime working years." The employment-population ratio for this group reached a high point of 81.9 percent in April 2000. In December 2007, the ratio had fallen to 79.7 percent, and it hit the bottom of the trough at 74.8 percent in November 2010. Since then, the rate has been slowly rising. In October, however, it remained at 77.2 percent, its average for all nine months of 2015.
Year over year change in unemployment
For more details about today's jobs report, please continue reading below.
Key aspects of the report:
Hours & Wages
• Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose 9 cents to $21.18 in October.
• Average work week for all employees on non-farm payrolls remained unchanged at 34.5 hours in October.
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose 9 cents to $25.20.
• The manufacturing workweek rose 0.2 hours to 40.7 hours.
• The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls rose 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours.
Duration of unemployment in October:
• Less than five weeks: 2.326 million, down from 2.363 million in September
• 5 to 14 weeks: 2.311 million, up from 2.218 million in September
• 15 to 26 weeks: 1.218 million, up from 1.214 million in September
• 27 weeks and more: 2.142 million, up from 2.104 million in September
Job gains and losses in October for selected categories:
• Professional services: + 78,000
• Transportation & warehousing : - 2,100
• Leisure & hospitality: + 41,000
• Information: - 1,000
• Health care & social assistance: + 56,700
• Retail trade: + 43,800
• Construction: + 31,000
• Manufacturing: 0
• Mining and Logging: - 4,000
Here's what the seasonally adjusted job growth numbers have looked like in October for the previous 10 years.
October 2005: + 84,000
October 2006: + 3,000
October 2007: + 83,000
October 2008: - 476,000
October 2009: - 201,000
October 2010: + 248,000
October 2011: + 183,000
October 2012: + 213,000
October 2013: + 225,000
October 2014: + 221,000
October 2015: + 271,000