Economy Added a Robust 261,000 Jobs in October & Unemployment Drops to 4.1%

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Washington, DC….Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 261,000 in October, and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in food services and drinking places increased sharply, mostly offsetting a decline in September that largely reflected the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. In October, job gains also occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, and health care.

Household Survey Data

The unemployment rate edged down by 0.1 percentage point to 4.1 percent in October, and
the number of unemployed persons decreased by 281,000 to 6.5 million. Since January, the
unemployment rate has declined by 0.7 percentage point, and the number of unemployed
persons has decreased by 1.1 million. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult women (3.6 percent) and
Whites (3.5 percent) declined in October. The jobless rates for adult men (3.8 percent),
teenagers (13.7 percent), Blacks (7.5 percent), Asians (3.1 percent), and Hispanics
(4.8 percent) showed little change. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was
little changed at 1.6 million and accounted for 24.8 percent of the unemployed. (See
table A-12.)

The labor force participation rate decreased by 0.4 percentage point to 62.7 percent in
October but has shown little movement on net over the past 12 months. The employment-
population ratio declined by 0.2 percentage point over the month to 60.2 percent, after
increasing by 0.3 percentage point in September. The employment-population ratio is up
by 0.5 percentage point over the year. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to
as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 369,000 to 4.8 million in October. These
individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time
because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time
jobs. Over the past 12 months, the number of involuntary part-time workers has decreased
by 1.1 million. (See table A-8.)

In October, 1.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little
changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals
were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a
job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 524,000 discouraged workers in October,
essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe
no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.0 million persons marginally attached
to the labor force in October had not searched for work for reasons such as school
attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 261,000 in October, after changing little
in September (+18,000). Employment in food services and drinking places increased sharply
over the month, mostly offsetting a decline in September that largely reflected the impact
of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. In October, employment also increased in professional and
business services, manufacturing, and health care. (See table B-1.)

Employment in food services and drinking places rose sharply in October (+89,000),
following a decrease of 98,000 in September when many workers were off payrolls due to
the hurricanes.

Professional and business services added 50,000 jobs in October, about in line with its
average monthly gain over the prior 12 months.

Manufacturing employment rose by 24,000 in October, with job gains in computer and
electronic products (+5,000) and chemicals (+4,000). Employment in fabricated metals
continued to trend up (+4,000). Manufacturing has added 156,000 jobs since a recent
employment low in November 2016.

Health care added 22,000 jobs in October. Employment in ambulatory health care services
continued to trend up over the month (+16,000). Health care has added an average of
24,000 jobs per month thus far in 2017, compared with an average gain of 32,000 per
month in 2016.

Employment in other major industries, including mining, construction, wholesale trade,
retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and
government, changed little in October.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at
34.4 hours in October. In manufacturing, the workweek increased by 0.2 hour to 41.0
hours, and overtime edged up by 0.1 hour to 3.5 hours. The average workweek for
production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by
0.1 hour to 33.7 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls, at $26.53,
were little changed in October (-1 cent), after rising by 12 cents in September.
Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 63 cents, or
2.4 percent. In October, average hourly earnings of private-sector production
and nonsupervisory employees, at $22.22, were little changed (-1 cent). (See
tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised up from
+169,000 to +208,000, and the change for September was revised up from -33,000
to +18,000. With these revisions, employment was 90,000 higher than previously
reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from
businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from
the recalculation of seasonal factors.) After revisions, job gains have averaged
162,000 over the last 3 months.

_____________
The Employment Situation for November is scheduled to be released on Friday,
December 8, 2017, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).

____________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Conversion to the 2017 North American Industry Classification System |
| |
|With the release of January 2018 data on February 2, 2018, the establishment survey |
|will revise the basis for industry classification from the 2012 North American |
|Industry Classification System (NAICS) to 2017 NAICS. The conversion to 2017 NAICS |
|will result in minor revisions reflecting content changes within the mining and |
|logging, retail trade, information, financial activities, and professional and |
|business services sectors. Additionally, some smaller industries will be combined |
|within the mining and logging, durable goods, retail trade, and information sectors.|
|Several industry titles and descriptions also will be updated. |
| |
|Approximately 4 percent of employment will be reclassified into different industries|
|as a result of the revision. Details of new, discontinued, and combined industries |
|due to the 2017 NAICS update, as well as changes due to the annual benchmarking |
|process, will be available on January 5, 2018. |
| |
|For more information on the 2017 NAICS update, visit www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/. |
|____________________________________________________________________________________|

 

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