U.S. employers added only 12,000 jobs during October, a month when labor strikes and hurricanes impacted employment. However, the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1% and average hourly wages continued to rise, federal officials said Friday.
Job creation slowed considerably compared to the average gain of 194,000 jobs per month during the past year, according to the October data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment continued to trend up in healthcare and government. Temporary help services lost jobs. Employment declined in manufacturing due to strike activity.
Healthcare added 52,000 jobs in October, in line with the average monthly gain of 58,000 over the prior 12 months. Government jobs continued to trend up in October (+40,000), which is in line with the average monthly gain of 43,000 over the prior 12 months.
Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services declined by 49,000 jobs in October. Temporary help services employment has decreased by 577,000 since reaching a peak in March 2022.
Manufacturing employment decreased by 46,000 in October, reflecting a decline of 44,000 in transportation equipment manufacturing that was largely due to the strike at Boeing, which affected suppliers as well.
Employment in construction changed little in October (+8,000). That gain is lower than the average of 20,000 new construction jobs per month over the prior 12 months. There was little to no change in other industries including wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities and leisure and hospitality.
In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 13 cents, or 0.4 %, to $35.46. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.0%.
The BLS said the destruction from Hurricanes Helene and Milton which hit the southeastern U.S. on Sept. 26 and Oct. 9, likely impacted job data in certain industries in affected states but had no impact on the national unemployment rate. State-level unemployment data is scheduled to be released on Nov. 19.
BLS also revised downward its previous preliminary job creation estimates for August and September. Nonfarm employment was changed from +159,000 to +78,000 for August, and the change for September was revised from +254,000 to +223,000. With these revisions, hiring for August and September combined is 112,000 lower than previously reported.
