Job growth was led by professional and business services, which added 100,000 jobs

America’s unemployment rate has been cut to 4.6 per cent in October coming from 5.9 per cent in June.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 531,000. The job growth was spread across various industries with notable gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and manufacturing.

Professional and business services added 100,000 jobs in October 2021. Leisure and hospitality rose 164,000 while retail trade increased by 35,000 over the month.

Transportation and warehousing added 54,000, wholesale trade (+14,000) and information (+10,000). Additionally, employment in mining added 5,000, other services added 33,000, manufacturing added 60,000 and construction increased by 44,000 jobs. Employment in health care increased in October by 37,000 jobs and employment in financial activities increased by 21,000 jobs.

Since a recent dip in April 2020, the rate has increased by 18.2 million, but is still down by 2.8 per cent from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. However, America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) reports that, “in October, employment decreased by 43,000 in local government education and by 22,000 in state government education.”

Slight change in the number of permanent job losers

Notably, the number of persons on temporary layoff stood at 1.1 million in October. The number of permanent job losers changed slightly to 2.1 million.

While the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 357,000 to 2.3 million. Moreover, the number of unemployed persons, who were jobless less than 5 weeks in October stood at 2.1 million.

The labour force participation rate for October stood at 61.6 per cent, while the employment population ratio rose to 58.8 per cent. Nonetheless, persons employed part-time for economic reasons stood at 4.4 million in October.

Based on BLS assessment, “these individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part-time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.” In October, a total of 1.7 million individuals were slightly attached to the labour force.

These persons were not in the labour force, wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job in the last year. Of the marginally attached, 455,000 persons were classified as discouraged workers in October, little changed over the month.These persons are not currently seeking work as they believe no jobs are available for them.