The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were just 12,000 jobs created in October, which was well below estimates of 113,000. Negative revisions to August and September also shaved 112,000 jobs from those months combined. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, though there’s important rounding information to understand about this, as noted below.
While hurricanes Helene and Milton did have some effect on the report, the BLS noted that they aren’t able to quantify the impact. And there were signs of weakness in the report regardless of the storms.
Not only was the headline job number (which comes from the report’s Business Survey) much lower than forecasts, but the job creation component in the report’s Household Survey showed 368,000 job losses. This latter figure is considered more real-time because it’s derived by calling households, whereas the Business Survey is based on modeling and estimations. The Household Survey also showed that we lost 164,000 full-time and 227,000 part-time jobs last month.
And there’s an important note on the unemployment rate, which did rise materially even though the rounding makes it appear otherwise. September’s unemployment rate was 4.051%, which was rounded to 4.1%. October’s unemployment rate was 4.145%, and while this was also rounded to 4.1%, it still marks a nearly 0.1% (0.094% to be exact) rise.
