Retailers, health care providers and the leisure and hospitality industry accounted for the bulk of 184,000 new private-sector jobs added in October, according the the monthly report released this morning by the Labor Department.
Manufacturing, after several months of shedding jobs, added 13,000 last month, but employment in the sector labeled “Motor vehicles and parts” fell by 2,100.
Here’s a breakdown of where the new jobs came:
• Retail trade: up 36,000 jobs
• Health care: up 31,000 jobs
• Leisure and hospitality: up 28,000 jobs
• Mining and logging: up 21,000 jobs
• Construction: up 17,000 jobs
• Temporary help services: up 13,600 jobs
• Government: down 13,000 jobs.
Since July, the economy has created an average of 173,000 jobs a month. That’s up from 67,000 a month from April through June. Still, President Barack Obama will face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since Franklin Roosevelt.
The work force — the number of people either working or looking for work — rose by 578,000 in October. And 410,000 more people said they were employed. But the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or longer was 5 million, up from 4.84 million in September.
The influx of people seeking jobs “could be a sign that people are starting to see better job prospects and so should be read as another positive aspect to the report,” said Julia Coronado, an economist at BNP Paribas.
Gregg Gardner, Detroit Free Press
