October Data Show Stronger Labor Market as Workers Return and Part-Time Work Falls
"The October jobs figures released today by the BLS showed a stronger U.S. labor market. The
unemployment rate edged up by 0.08 percentage points, just enough to raise the headline rate from 7.8 to 7.9 percent. However, a look at the underlying data showed that
the uptick in the headline rate was a “good” increase of the kind that we often see as previously discouraged workers return to a strengthening labor market.
The
labor force increased by 578,000 workers in October. The
number of employed persons, as measured by the household survey from which these data come,
increased by 410,000. Since the increase in new jobholders was less than the increase in the labor force, the number of unemployed increased by a reported 170,000. (The numbers don’t sum because of rounding errors.) The unemployment rate is the ratio of employed persons to the labor force.
The BLS also publishes a broader measure of unemployment known as U-6. It includes discouraged workers who have given up looking because they think there are no jobs to be found, people who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work if available, and some other marginally attached workers. The number of
involuntary part-time workers fell by 296,000 in October, helping to bring U-6 down from 14.7 percent to 14.6 percent.
Looking at other data from the household survey, we find that the
employment-population ratio increased from
58.7 to 58.8 percent. That marks its highest level in more than three years. The
labor force participation rate increased as well, from
63.6 percent to 63.8 percent. Both of these data points are further signs of a strengthening labor market."
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