The U.S. cruised past expectations, adding 531,000 jobs in October above the 425,000 of analysts’ expectations, according to a report from the Labor Department released Friday.
These numbers in employment are an indication that many of the recent headwinds to hiring, such as the Delta variant, parts shortages, and the availability of labor itself, are beginning to ease.
Analysts expect that hiring will remain robust over the coming months as workers’ constraints ease and financial needs increase.
Friday’s jobs report also showed that the unemployment rate in the United States ticked down from 4.8% in September to 4.6%. That’s a comparatively low level though still well above the pre-pandemic jobless rate of 3.5%.
Job gains were sprinkled across industries, with the badly bruised hospitality and leisure sector picking up the most (+164,000).
Even better, the August and September jobs reports were not nearly as disappointing as we thought. August was revised upward by 117,000 jobs, and September’s by 118,000.
Why it matters
The labor market is back on the open highway after getting slowed down by the Delta variant and a historic shortage of workers. That shortage, however, does seem to be sticking around.
The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of adults with jobs or looking for work, hasn’t improved in the last few months.
The COVID pill
Pfizer released clinical trial data for its COVID-19 pill, and it was a report card any parent would be proud of. The treatment reduced hospitalizations and deaths in the most vulnerable patients by 89%, a result so good Pfizer halted clinical trials early.
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Antiviral pills like Pfizer’s and Merck’s (which was just granted authorization in the UK) are crucial tools in the fight to turn COVID-19 from a pandemic to an endemic virus. When taken at home within days of discovering COVID symptoms, these pills are much more accessible than current treatments, which require a visit to a medical office.
While this has been around for some time now, this time, it really is trueーthe end of COVID-19 is in sight. With booster shots flowing and effective pills on their way to authorization, by January 4—the vaccination mandate deadline for large US employers—this pandemic may well be over in the US.
Dollar hits more than 1-year peak
The increase in the number of jobs created last month as the surge in COVID-19 infections subsided is an indication that economic activity is regaining momentum early in the fourth quarter.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six rivals, rose as high as 94.634 after the jobs report, its highest level since September last year. The greenback, which has strengthened around 1% in the past fortnight, was last up 0.22% at 94.534.
On Thursday, the Bank of England surprised the markets by keeping interest rates at historice lows, after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will begin to curb the pace of its monthly bond-buying program later this month.
