Just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election and Federal Reserve policy meeting, the government reported a marked weakening in the labor market last month, though it is unclear to what extent storms in the Southeast affected the data.
The U.S. added just 12,000 jobs in October, according to the Nonfarm Payrolls report, well shy of economist forecasts for 113,000. September's job gain of 254,000 was revised down to 223,000.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics added a note to the report saying it was not possible to quantify the effect of the recent storms on the payroll data.
Checking other report details shows a bit more strength than the headline print. Average hourly earnings grew 0.4% in October, ahead of estimates for 0.3% and 0.3% in September.
Collection
[
|
...
]