Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 531,000 in October, and the unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percentage point to 4.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread, with notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in public education declined over the month. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures ... (full story)

The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in October while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 531,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 450,000. The unemployment rate had been expected to edge down to 4.7%. The report comes amid heightened concerns about the state of the labor market, particularly a chronic shortage that has left companies unable to fill positions to scale back production and cut hours of operation. Companies have been increasing wages and adding other incentives as the working share of the potential labor ... (full story)

After two months of dismal job reports, the BLS finally redeemed itself when moments ago it reported that in October the US gained some 531K jobs, well above the 450K consensus exp and above the 500K whisper number. Perhaps just as importantly, the Sept print was revised solidly higher, from 194K to 312K, as was August, up from 366K to 483K. With these revisions, employment in August and September combined is 235,000 higher than previously reported. Validating the solid headline print was the Household survey which showed that the number of employed Americans jumped by 359K from 153.68K to 154.039K, and with the ... (full story)