THE OCTOBER EMPLOYMENT SITUATION
By: Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger Photographer: George Whylie Videographer: Maxine NolanThe release of the October Employment statement was a crucial one for President Obama and his administration. With election day looming this coming Tuesday, the domestic situation at home is a deciding factor for many voters.
While we were all hoping for a drop in the unemployment rate, it inched up slightly although not too significantly.
Private sector businesses added 184,000 jobs last month which happened to be the largest gain in 8 months. Even non-farm payroll employment rose by 171,000 jobs in October. Revisions to the previous two months added another 84,000 jobs. What this amounts to is the consistent addition of private sector jobs for 32 months in a row with a total of 5.4 million jobs added during that period, taking into account the preliminary benchmark revision.
Putting it into perspective, the economy has added a total of 2.1 million jobs, as compared to 1.9 million over the preceding 12 months.
Unemployment pushed upward from 7.8% to 7.9% from September to October. This is largely due to more people entering the work force. The labor force rose by 578,000 people in October and the labor force participation rate increased by 0.2 percentage points. The share of the population employed rose by 0.1% to 58.8%. Over the last 12 months, the unemployment rate has decreased by 1.0 percentage points as a result of growing employment.
October brought with it the following statistics:
** An increase of 51,000 jobs in the professional and business services industry
** An increase of 36,400 jobs in retail trade
**An increase of 32,500 jobs in health care and social assistance
**An increase of 22,900 jobs in the restaurant industry
**An increase of 17,000 jobs in the construction industry
**An increase of 13,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector
**+5000 gains in durable goods and 8,000 in non-durable goods
**The manufacturing sector has added jobs in 28 of the last 33 months, gaining half a million jobs over that period, the most for any such period since the mid-1990’s.
On a more negative note, the government sector lost 13,000 jobs. Federal government payroll decreased by 6,000. State government payroll decreased by 7,000 and local government payroll remained constant.
It is important to note that President Obama is still attempting to stimulate the economy and the employment situation with his American Jobs Act which would strive to create more jobs including further investment in infrastructure to rebuild our Nation’s ports, roads and highways, and assistance to State and local governments to prevent layoffs and to enable them to rehire hundreds of thousands of teachers.
STATEMENT RELEASED BY ALAN B. KRUEGER, CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS
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