The job market added a stunning 531,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.6% — a new pandemic-era low.
Why it matters: America's job market recovery has been on track all along.
Between the lines: Revisions to prior months are often overlooked. Not this month: Upgrades to both August and September were so enormous — fully 366,000 jobs higher than originally reported — that they have definitively reversed the narrative that there was a Delta-induced hiring slump in late summer.
By the numbers: America has now recovered 80% of the jobs lost at the depth of the recession in 2020.
The big picture: Leisure and hospitality added 164,000 jobs last month — but jobs growth was widespread. The disappointment — again — came in public sector education. State and local education shed a combined 65,000 jobs.
- Wages are still rising: Average hourly earnings rose another 11 cents an hour in October, to $30.96. That's enough to keep up with inflation.
What to watch: Millions of workers remain on the sidelines — and there wasn't much improvement in pulling them back into the workforce.
The bottom line: "The Fall hiccup is now at best a Fall deep breath," tweeted University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers.