- U.S. economy adds 531,000 nonfarm jobs in October, led by gains in the leisure and hospitality sector
- Revisions to previous months’ jobs totals show stronger gains than initially reported
- Financial services, transportation and warehousing have recovered or exceeded the number of jobs they had before the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
The United States economy posted a net gain of 531,000 nonfarm jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data suggests that the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating after a slowdown in the late summer brought on by factors like a surge in COVID-19 cases and supply chain bottlenecks.
In addition, the report showed a significant upward revision to the totals in the past two jobs reports. August’s figure was increased to 483,000 while September’s grew to 312,000, a total increase of 235,000 compared to previous figures. Growth has averaged 582,000 new jobs a month this year.
The leisure and hospitality sector continued to lead job gains, posting 164,000 new positions in October; 119,000 were in food services and drinking places. The sector’s jobs remain considerably below pre-pandemic levels, down 8.2 percent (1.4 million jobs) compared to the tally in February 2020.
- Other significant gains included 100,000 additional jobs in professional and business services, 60,000 jobs in manufacturing, and 54,000 in transportation and warehousing
- While most sectors remain below pre-pandemic levels, transportation and warehousing jobs have boomed and are 149,000 above February 2020 levels; the financial service sector gained 21,000 and is back to pre-pandemic levels
- Local government education jobs were down 43,000, while state government education jobs fell by 22,000
- Overall, the U.S. economy has recovered 18.2 million jobs since April 2020 but is still down 2.8 percent (4.2 million jobs) compared to pre-pandemic levels
- The unemployment rate fell 0.2 points to 4.6 percent, with 7.4 million unemployed people overall
- Average hourly earnings in October increased 11 cents to $30.96; earnings have grown by 4.9 percent over the past 12 months
- The BLS report is similar to the findings of a recent ADP report on private payrolls, which logged 571,000 new jobs in October
