Each month, the Labor Department issues an employment report. On Friday, that report showed job creation rose in October — and it revealed something more.
With its latest unemployment assessment, the government in effect took a BEFORE snapshot of the U.S. economy. It collected all of the data before Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast and before the election outcome could be known. Each of those two events has the potential to change the AFTER outlook.
The October report showed employers added 171,000 jobs — more than the 125,000 that most economists had been predicting. And both August and September had upward revisions, suggesting job growth has been stronger lately than previously thought.
The October jobless rate did increase a 10th of a point to 7.9 percent. But the uptick generally was interpreted as good news because it reflected a surge of applicants entering the labor market. Having 578,000 more people in the hunt for a job suggests optimism is rising.
November 2, 2012