Environmental Career Center – Helping people work for a better environment since 1980

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today (November 2) that private employers added 184,000 jobs in October with the unemployment rate ticking up slightly to 7.9%.  Many economists expected the  new employment number to be in the 125,000 range.    Significantly, August and September jobs numbers were revised upward by 84,000 jobs (+50,000 in August and +34,000 in September).   This is the 32nd straight month of positive job growth.  125,000 jobs are needed each month to keep up with growth in the potential labor force.  Government employment continued to retract with job losses of 13,000 with state employment down 7,000 and federal employment down 6,000.  2.1 million new jobs have been created in the past 12 months.