U.S. hiring slowed in October, but hurricanes and labor strikes caused the nation’s workforce to shrink.
A new jobs report marked the last bit of important economic data ahead of Election Day. However, the data provide only a vague picture of the US economy due to occasional disruptions in the past month.
Employers added 12,000 workers last month, falling short of economic expectations for 90,000 more jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. the data he showed on friday. The unemployment rate is 4.1%, which is in line with the previous month’s level and remains historically low.
Hiring in October was a sharp slowdown from the 254,000 jobs added in September, though it should be interpreted with caution, experts told ABC News before the data was released.
“Workers who were not paid during the survey period due to work disruptions will not be counted as employed, and workers and businesses may be too busy dealing with the aftermath of the storms to respond to surveys,” Executive Director Martha Gimbel. Yale University’s Budget Lab and former director of economic research at Indeed told ABC News in a statement.
Hurricane Milton It made landfall in Florida on October 9 as a Category 3 hurricane. It eventually left millions without power and many of the state’s gas stations without fuel. At the end of September, Hurricane Helena It landed in Florida, prompting recovery efforts that continued for weeks.
Also, about 33,000 Boeing employees he left work in mid-September, an action that will appear for the first time as a vacancy in the October report.
In all, the combination of the hurricanes and job disruptions is estimated to have pushed hiring levels 50,000 jobs below where they would otherwise be, Bank of America Global Research said in a note to clients this week.
“That probably weighed on payrolls overall, especially in leisure and hospitality,” said Bank of America Global Research, pointing to Hurricane Milton. “There is likely to be a slight drag from Helene,” the bank added.
An aerial view of a building destroyed by Hurricane Milton on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Despite the general slowdown this year, the labor market has been resilient. Recruitment has continued at a strong pace; meanwhile, the unemployment rate has risen, but remains near a 50-year low.
The latest hiring data came at the end of a week in which new job openings showed the economy growing at a brisk pace while inflation is returning to normal.
US GDP grew at a rate of 2.8% in the three months ending in September. US Bureau of Economic Analysis data on Wednesday he showed. This number fell below economists’ expectations, but showed strong growth driven by sustained consumer spending.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge he showed that prices rose by 2.1% in the year ending in September. Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of around 9% in 2022, although it remains slightly higher than the Fed’s 2% target.
The jobs report will arrive four days earlier The elections the day It also marks the last bit of meaningful economic data before the Fed announces its next interest rate decision on November 7.
The Fed is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter percent, and CME FedWatch toola measure of market sentiment.
