Employment Up, Unemployment Down in October
Summary
The nation added more than a half million jobs in October and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.6%, but there remains a large cohort of people who continue to opt out of the labor market, according to a new report. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly Employment Situation Summary for October this morning, with the data showing continued improvement overall. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 531,000 in October and the unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percentage point to 4.6%, the report said. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) was unchanged at 61.6% in October and has remained within a narrow range of 61.4% to 61.7% since June 2020 and is 1.7 percentage points lower than in February 2020. “However, the share of women citing childcare as their main reason for not working has noticeably declined since the summer.” Kushi said there are some other, positive takeaways from today’s report.