The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly employment report today, which announced that 204,000 jobs have been added in the month of October—a significant increase from 163,000 jobs added in September (BLS notes a revised number from its previous report of 148,000 in September ).
Although the total number of jobs increased, the unemployment rate remains steady at 7.3 percent (unemployment was at 7.2 percent in September). The number of unemployed persons (11.3 million) changed very little in October, however the number who reported temporary layoffs increased by 448,000. This includes federal employees furloughed from Oct. 1 to 16 during the government shutdown. The number of long-term unemployed persons (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) remained about the same at 4.1 million and comprised 36.1 percent of the total unemployed. Furloughed federal employees were still considered employed in the survey during the government shutdown because they worked or received pay for the payroll period that included the 12th of the month.
The manufacturing industry saw a boom, with 19,000 jobs added, after three months of ups and downs. In August 2013, 15,000 jobs were added in manufacturing, dropping to 4,000 added in September 2013.
The construction sector has also experienced extreme rises and falls in the past three months. This past month, 11,000 construction jobs were added. August saw an increase of only 1,000 jobs in the industry, while September brought 18,000 jobs. Over the past 12 months, there has been a steady increase in the construction of both residential and nonresidential buildings.
BLS also reported an increase of 5,000 jobs since September for architectural and engineering services. This follows the trend of a steady increase in this sector over the last 12 months.
