October's Employment Figures

The Department of Labor has released its October employment data.  As has often been the case lately, it's a mixed bag.  On the good side, there were 151,000 new jobs last month, more than the expected 60,000 new jobs.  This represents an addition of 159,000 private sector jobs and a cut of 8,000 government jobs (primarily the final throes of the Census effect).  Pay and the number of hours worked inched up, which is a good sign. However, the unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.6%--largely because more people are returning to the labor force to look for jobs.  In other words, were still in the midst of a long slog that is going in the right direction, but taking its own sweet time.

-JH