October Employment Data

In case you hadn't heard, the Department of Labor released its October employment figures today.  Overall, it was better than expected.  Job gains were estimated at 171,000 and the unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a point to 7.9%; the unemployment rate is largely viewed as positive because of the increase in people looking for work.  Perhaps more important were revisions to the previous months, which were revised up by a total of 64,000 jobs.  The trend lately of upward revisions suggests that there may be continual improvement in the labor market as the early job estimates are unable to fully capture th eincrease in jobs.  But we'll have to see if it keeps up.

-JH