October Job Creation Stronger than Expected

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in October, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The biggest job gains were in professional and business services (+70,000), health care (+42,000), and transportation/warehousing (+25,000), while the bureau described retail’s 6000 added jobs as one of several sectors that were “little changed.”

Overall, the October gain was more than three times the average monthly gain of 48,000 over the prior 12 months.

The bureau’s report does not include commentary on the factors beneath the numbers, but the coverage of the latest numbers by news organizations included reporting on that question. Here’s a sampling:

* “You have to look pretty hard to find something to dislike in there,” Dan North, Senior Economist at Allianz Trade North America told CNBC. “It’s a really, really good report, and all around I think you’d say it’s stronger than expected and the best one in a while, and it kind of fits with what I call the stable but perhaps unexciting labor market.”

* “The remarkable stretch of labor market stability and low unemployment [reflected in the report] has not felt favorable for many Americans, especially those without jobs. The average duration of unemployment rose to 27 weeks in October, the highest level since the end of 2021:” The New York Times

* Samuel Tombs, Chief U.S. Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told The Wall Street Journal that that gains from AI in areas like manufacturing aren’t enough to completely offset losses elsewhere. “I think AI is a modest drag, but it is not a dramatically deteriorating picture,” Tombs said.