Friday’s announcement from the Labor Department was welcome news, as employers added an estimated 171,000 new positions in October—more jobs than estimated the past two months. In fact, economists had forecast only 125,000 jobs would be added in October. Jobs growth from the previous two months was also revised higher. September’s figures were changed from 114,000 to 148,000, and August’s total rose from 142,000 to 192,000.
Hiring occurred in nearly every industry, excluding state government. The largest gains were in professional and business services, health care and retail. Although the unemployment rate rose slightly, from 7.8 percent in September to 7.9 percent in October, the increase was the result of more workers joining the labor force.
Although the employment report isn’t outstanding—or dismal—enough to make much difference in the presidential race, the positive results are likely a relief to President Obama, who could have seen his campaign take a nosedive if the final employment report before the election had indicated a weakening economy.
“It is critical that we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007,” chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Alan Krueger wrote in a White House blog post Friday.
The October report puts to rest speculation that the September numbers—the first the fall below 8 percent since Obama took office—were not a mistake or a fluke.
“Generally, the report shows that things are better than we’d expected and certainly better than we’d thought a few months ago,” Paul Dales, senior United States economist for Capital Economics, told the New York Times. “But we’re still not making enough progress to bring that unemployment rate down significantly and rapidly.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, however, stated the October jobs report was evidence the nation needs to change its economic policies.
“Today’s increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill,” he said. Romney added that October’s unemployment rate of 7.9 percent was higher than the 7.8 percent in January 2009 when Obama took office.
Many economists remain hopeful that after the election ends and Congress addresses the looming fiscal cliff hiring could escalate.
“If we can do this kind of job growth with all the uncertainty out there, imagine if we were to clear up those tax issues and hold back the majority of tax increases that are pending at the end of the year,” John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics, told the Times. “We could do much better in 2013, maybe as well as we appeared to be doing earlier this year.”
