On November 1, 2019, the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its jobs report for October. Job growth came in at 128,000 well above consensus projections in the 75-80,000 range. In addition, the job growth totals for August and September were revised to higher levels. The August figure was increased by 51,000 to 219,000 and the September figure by 44,000 to plus 180,000. Including these revisions, job growth for the three months ending in October averaged 176,000 per month. The total employment figure for October was 158.5 million, up some 2.0 million from the October 2018 level.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6% from 3.5% in the prior month, but this increase could be the result of the nationwide GM strike which was recently settled. In terms of the unemployed, the latest figure was 5.85 million, down from 6.11 million a year ago. Importantly, the group of job seekers out of work for the longest time (27 weeks or more) declined from 1.37 million a year ago to 1.26 million in the latest month.