Tipsheet

BOOMING: Economy Roars With 250,000 New Jobs in October

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  November 02, 2018 10:00 AM

With just days to go until the crucial 2018 midterm elections, the economy is roaring after adding 250,000 new jobs in October. The number leaps over expectations and predictions of 190,000 new positions.

Further, the labor participation rate has increased. From the Labor Department:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 250,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in manufacturing, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing.

The unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent in October, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 6.1 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 0.4 percentage point and 449,000, respectively.
 
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.5 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (11.9 percent), Whites (3.3 percent), Blacks (6.2 percent), Asians (3.2 percent), and Hispanics (4.4 percent) showed little or no change in October.  

The labor force participation rate increased by 0.2 percentage point to 62.9 percent in October.

The White House is already touting the numbers and using them to push voters to the polls on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Presidential Advisor Ivanka Trump continues her work to bridge the gap between a historic number of job openings and necessary skill sets for workers.