The October 2021 Jobs Report released on Thursday revealed that hiring rose sharply last month, with the United States economy adding 531,000 jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent from 4.8 percent — the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Last month’s gain was an improvement from the 312,000 jobs added in September and outpaced predictions from economists at Bloomberg, who were looking for a gain of 450,000.
The increase in employment was broad, with sizeable gains in the hospitality and leisure sectors, as well as in factories and offices.
The results reveal that employers are feeling more optimistic as the latest coronavirus surge eases. “This is the kind of recovery we can get when we are not sidelined by a surge in COVID cases,” Indeed’s economic research developer Nick Bunker said.
However, total payrolls are still down 8% from pre-pandemic times.
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