The U.S unemployment rate has hit another new low for the period since February 2001. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy gained 261,000 jobs in the non-farm sector in October while September’s figure was revised up from -33,000 to +18,000. The market’s median expectation for employment growth in October was 310,000.
After revisions to previous months’ figures, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.2% to 4.1% as over 281,000 people either found work, retired or stopped looking for work. Average hourly pay was slightly lower than in September but still 2.4% higher than a year ago, although this rate was a sizable drop from September’s revised growth rate of 2.8%.
The total number of employed persons in the non-farm sector at the end of October was 147.0 million and 153.9 million overall. Over the past twelve months, 2.0 million jobs have been created in the U.S. with almost all of them in the non-farm sector. Another figure which is indicative of the state of the U.S. economy is the employment-to-population ratio. In September it jumped from August’s 60.1% to 60.4% but in October the ratio fell back to 60.2%, while the participation rate also slipped back from 63.1% to 62.7%.