According to the US Department of Labor, the US economy created 531,000 jobs in October, predicted by more than 450,000 economists.
The unemployment rate also dropped slightly from 4.8% to 4.6%, the lowest since the pandemic. The unemployment rate in February 2020 was 3.5%, the lowest ever.
Employment numbers in August and September have also been revised upwards.
President Joe Biden celebrated the unexpected report and called it “another great day for economic recovery” in a comment on Friday’s employment report at the White House.
Most of the employment growth was in the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing sectors.
“Overall, it was a really positive employment report, but some questions remain about the structure of the Fed’s labor market,” said Megan Green, Global Chief Economist at the Advisory Farm Crawl Institute and Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Told. ABC News.
But all the work reports weren’t good news.
The number of workers involved, that is, those who are working or actively looking for a job, remains low at 61.6%, with only 104,000 new workers joining the workforce in October.
Unfortunately, labor force participation is the lowest level seen since the early 1970s and has been fairly stable over the past year.
Companies sought to get workers back by raising wages and offering bonuses, but most of those profits were offset by rising food, gas and rent prices.