of latest employment situation report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released Friday morning, showed the economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, or 12% of 100,000 extra is expected. It's the smallest gain in four years since then December 2020.
Average monthly job growth over the past year was 194,000 jobs, putting October's 12,000 in context as below the norm.
The report “showed a material weakening in job growth,” EY senior economist Lydia Boussour told Entrepreneur in an emailed statement.
The growth of jobs less than expected can be explained by Hurricane Helene, Hurricane MiltonAND port workers' strike that happened to three days in early October.
“Employment fell in production due to the strike activity”, the report emphasizes.
He later acknowledged that because of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, “it is likely that estimates of payroll employment in some industries were affected by the hurricanes; however, it is not possible to quantify the net effect…because the survey of the foundation is not designed to insulate the effects of extreme weather events”.
Even with lower job growth, the unemployment rate was steady at 4.1%. the same rate was in September.
There were seven million unemployed people in the US in October, up from 6.4 million unemployed at the same time last year.
The Federal Reserve will consider this report when it meets next week to decide on interest rate policies.
“Overall, the October jobs report is likely to keep the Fed on track for a cautious 25bps rate cut at next week's policy meeting,” Boussour said. “Fed officials are likely to look to the raucous payrolls numbers and rely on the aggregate of labor market data, which continue to point to cooler labor market dynamics and continued disinflation in growth. wages.”