OAN Staff James Meyers
9:55 AM – Friday, November 1, 2024
The latest jobs report shows that job growth slowed in the month of October, coming in well under economists’ expectations, while the unemployment rate was unchanged.
The Labor Department on Friday reported that employers added 12,000 jobs in October, falling below the 113,000 gain that was predicted by LSEG economists and the lowest tally since December 2020.
The unemployment rate was 4.1%, in line with expectations.
The number of jobs added in the prior two months both hit a downward trend, with job creation in August revised down by 81,000 from a gain of 159,000 to 78,000, while September was revised down by 31,000 from a gain of 254,000 to 223,000.
Additionally, private sector payrolls contracted by 28,000 in October after LSEG economists estimated they would rise by 90,000.
Furthermore, the manufacturing sector saw employment decline by 46,000 jobs in October, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) noted was largely due to strike activity in the transportation equipment manufacturing area, such as Boeing.
The construction sector added 8,000 jobs, which was well below the average of 20,000 jobs per month in the past 12 months.
Health care added 52,300 jobs in October, near its average monthly gain of 58,000 in the last year.
The agency noted that it didn’t make any changes to the October report due to the hurricanes, explaining that “it is likely that payroll employment estimates in some industries were affected by the hurricanes; however, it is not possible to quantify the net effect on the over-the-month change in national employment, hours, or earnings estimates because the establishment survey is not designed to isolate effects from extreme weather events.”
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate was 62.6% in October, which is down slightly from 62.7% a month ago and has changed little over the course of the last year.
The number of permanently unemployed people increased to 1.8 million in October, while the number of people on temporary layoff was little changed at 846,000.
“As expected, the October jobs report shows a big impact from Hurricanes Milton and Helene,” said Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank. “The big one-off shocks that struck the economy in October make it impossible to know whether the job market was changing direction in the month, but the downward revisions to job growth through September show it was cooling before these shocks struck.”
Furthermore, the jobs report comes as the Federal Reserve is set to meet next week, with markets expecting policymakers to announce a 25-basis-point cut to interest rates.
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