The economy added 250,000 jobs in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Nov. 2, with Hispanic unemployment dropping to 4.4 percent—a new record.
The economy added 250,000 jobs in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Nov. 2, with Hispanic unemployment dropping to 4.4 percent —a new record for data reaching back to 1973.
The overall unemployment level remained at 3.7 percent, the lowest since 1969, while Black and Asian unemployment inched down to 6.2 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.
“These are incredible numbers,” President Donald Trump commented in a Nov. 2 morning tweet . “Keep it going, Vote Republican!”
The economy needs to expand by about 120,000 jobs a month to keep up with new workers coming in. The strong job growth defied the mid-October devastating hit of Hurricane Michael in Florida and expectations of economists, who predicted 190,000 more jobs.
“The report shows a booming U. S. economy with a sufficient whiff of wage inflation to keep the Fed on track to raise rates in December and at least twice next year,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds in New York.
Average hourly pay hiked 3.1 percent from a year ago in private non-farm jobs.
Firming wages support views that inflation will hover around the Fed’s 2.0 percent target for a while. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding the volatile food and energy components, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, has increased by 2.0 percent for five straight months.
The Fed is not expected to raise rates at its policy meeting next week, but economists believe October’s strong labor market data could see the U. S. central bank signal an increase in December. The Fed raised borrowing costs in September for the third time this year.
The unemployment rate doesn’t count workers who haven’t sought a job in the past four weeks. The rate slightly decreased to 7.4 percent in October, when counting people who sought a job in the past year and also those with part-time jobs in want of a full-time one.
Reuters contributed to this report.
