Administrative and support services added 46,000 workers, slightly topping the number of jobs added by the health care industry.
Advertisement
The October employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase of 271,000 jobs with the unemployment rate falling to 5.0%. “We have a recovering economy… households are in better shape”, Ms Yellen said. The poor payrolls growth seen in those months had fueled doubts among investors that the Fed would raise rates this year, even though Yellen has signaled she believed a hike would be appropriate before the year ends.
“The overriding message from today’s employment report is the soft patch is over and the rate hike is on”, said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.
The two sour notes in hiring were the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, which was flat for October, and transportation and warehousing, which shed about 2,100 jobs.
Wages have generally remained stagnant in recent months, but average hourly earnings jumped by 9 cents in October to $25.20.
“The overall strength in this report should serve to enhance the chances that the Federal Reserve will begin to raise short-term interest rates at its December meeting”, said Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers.
Odds on a December interest-rate increase, measured by pricing in the fed funds futures market, rose to 70% from 56% on Thursday.
“A lot more economic data is slated to be released between now and the Fed’s December meeting, but this is a positive step toward liftoff this year and should keep a December rate increase on the table as a live possibility”, said Tony Bedikian, Managing Director of Global Markets at Citizens Bank, predicting an increase.
Friday’s report from the government suggested that the USA economy is rebounding after a worrisome summer and is continuing to outshine other major economies.
Retailers added almost 44,000 jobs in October, the most since last November, a sign that they are preparing for strong sales over the winter holidays. US stocks ended mostly higher.
On a nationwide level, transportation and warehousing jobs increased by 2.3 percent over the year while jobs in wholesale trade grew by 1.3 percent in October.
“We’ve indicated that conditions look like they could be right for an increase”, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans, who has argued against a rate hike, said in an interview with CNBC on Friday.
Just three sectors accounted for a majority of job gains last month. The slowdown occurred mostly because businesses cut back on their stockpiles, and exports weakened.
Weak hiring at American factories reflects the effects of economic troubles overseas and a strong dollar, both of which hurt US exporters.
The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to the lowest level since April 2008.
Advertisement
The previously reported gain of 136,000 jobs for August was boosted to 153,000, but September’s gain of 142,000 jobs was whittled to 137,000. “However, there is much in the report that indicates there is a still a large amount of slack in the labor market”, Baker said.
