U.S. employment increased more than expected last month as private companies hired workers at the fastest pace since April, offering more signs of an up-tick in a sluggish economy.
CNBC.com
Nonfarm payrolls increased 151,000 in October, the first increase since May, as a 159,000 jump in private employment more than offset a 8,000 drop in government payrolls, the Labor Department said on Friday. In addition, the government revised payrolls for August and September to show 110,000 fewer jobs lost.
Economists had expected payrolls to increase 60,000 last month, with private employment rising 75,000.
Concern over the anemic job market was a factor behind the Federal Reserve's decision this week to pump an additional $600 billion into the economy through government bond purchases to push interest rates down further and stimulate demand.
The U.S. central bank, which cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008, had already bought about $1.7 trillion in government debt and mortgage-linked bonds.
October's strong jobs growth, however, failed to make a dent in the lofty unemployment rate, which remained at 9.6 percent for a third straight month, in line with market expectations.
Analysts say the economy needs to create at least 125,000 jobs a month to start bringing the unemployment rate down, but economic growth remains rather sluggish nearly 1-1/2 years into the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s.
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Anger over unemployment helped the Republican Party to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats in Tuesday's election, which was viewed as a vote on President Barack Obama's economic policies.
Activity Firming
But there are early signs growth is firming somewhat, with activity in both the manufacturing and service sectors rising in October. Economists said this bodes well for employment.
Employment in October was supported by the private service-providing employment, which jumped 154,000. Temporary help services, a harbinger of permanent hiring, increased 34,900 from 23,800 in September.
But manufacturing payrolls fell 7,000 after declining 2,000 in September. Construction unexpectedly added 5,000, helping the goods-producing sector payrolls to rise 5,000 after falling 4,000 in September.
The average work week increased to 34.3 hours from 34.2 hours in September.
Local government payrolls, which contributed to sinking government employment in September, fell 14,200 in October.
Overall government employment dipped 8,000.
On January 3, 2011 the GOP assumes responsibility for deficit spending.
Is there more to this? Yes. The Labor Participation Rate dropped to 64.5% of the labor force from 64.7 percent the previous month. The number of people actually employed dropped by 330,000. Oh, but remember, food service was up! More people are eating burgers!
by docj on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 07:43 #702232
Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 64.5 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.3 percent, edged down over the month.
Evidently, we didn't even do that.
So how this is accomplished in a month when we printed < 400K initial new jobless per week remains a total and complete mystery. Unless of course we now need more than +150K just to keep up with population growth.
*
by Cognitive Dissonance on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 07:35 #702205
So the cover story is falling apart and the veil is being lifted. Why indeed do we need QE 2?
Because the bankers need it more than anyone or anything else. And the Fed IS the banking cabal.
Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construc- tion, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued to add jobs.
Things will get worse next year.
On January 3, 2011 the GOP assumes responsibility for deficit spending.
