The U.S. added 20,000 fewer jobs than forecast to the economy in October, while unemployment rose and pay increases slowed to a near-two-and-a-half-year low.
Economists had expected October would see 170,000 new jobs created, but only 150,000 were produced. Of these, 51,000 were government jobs – the manufacturing sector actually lost 35,000, while transportation and warehousing lost 12,000 and information-related industries lost 9,000.
Unemployment rose to 3.9 percent – despite expectations it would remain at 3.8 percent – with the number of workers recorded in the household survey falling by 348,000 and the number of unemployed rising by 146,000.
Pay increases sank from 4.3 percent to 4.1 percent month-on-month; their lowest level in almost a two and a half years – but the Federal Reserve is reportedly pleased with this, as it believes holding down pay will help to bring inflation under control.
Last month, the U.S. added some 336,000 jobs – although this was driven entirely by a rise in part-time workers, with the number of people in full-time work actually falling by 22,000.
