From [HERE] With only four days to go until Tuesday’s presidential election, the poor jobs figures could not have come at a worse time for Kamala Harris.

Even allowing for the hurricanes and the Boeing strike, the employment data was weak. The consensus among analysts – who knew in advance about the special factors – was for jobs growth to ease from September’s 254,000 to 113,000 in October.

Bradley Saunders, from the consultancy Capital Economics, said: “All things considered, we suspect the upper limit for the disruptions hit was around 90,000, which means stripping them out, payrolls would only have increased by an underwhelming 102,000.”

Jobs growth for August and September was revised down by a combined 112,000 across the two months. That suggests demand for labour has eased at a crucial time.

From the Establishment Survey, the BLS reported Non-Farm Payrolls, once seasoned and adjusted for the birth/death model, increased by 12,000. Interestingly, that number was derived through government net hires adding up to a net +40,000, less a print of -28,000 for private sector net hires. 

The BLS also reported downward revisions in total of 112,000 to the August and September data. This puts net "job creation" or calling it what it is according to the Establishment Survey of -100,000. More accurately, this would be referred to as "job destruction."

Flipping over to the Household Survey, the number of people that left the civilian labor force in October was 220,000, while the number of those outside of the labor force increased by 428,000. 

The number of unemployed persons increased by 150,000, while the number of employed persons decreased by 368,000. So according to the Household Survey, October job creation/job destruction was -368,000. 

The Participation Rate slowed from 62.7% to 62.6% as the Employment to Population Ratio dropped from 60.2% to an even 60%. 

Unemployment Rates

Due to the numbers of folks leaving the labor force, the Unemployment Rate, despite the reduction in employed persons held tight at 4.1%. Due to a drop of 281,000 in the number of part-time workers, the Underemployment Rate also held steady at 7.7%. 

Let's take a look at unemployment by race, gender and education. I think at least on the educational side, the direction of unemployment may surprise some folks. 

Adult Men: Unemployment increased from 3.7% to 3.9%.

Adult Women: Unemployment held firm at 3.6%.

Teenagers: Unemployment decreased from 14.3% to 13.8%.

White: Unemployment increased from 3.6% to 3.8%.

Black or African American: Unemployment held firm at 5.7%.

Asian: Unemployment decreased from 4.1% to 3.9%.

Hispanic or Latino: Unemployment held firm at 5.1%.

Sub High School: Unemployment decreased from 6.8% to 6.6% and from 7.1% over two months. 

High School Grads: Unemployment held firm at 4.0%.

Some College or Associate Degree: Unemployment held firm at 3.4%.

Bachelor's Degree & Beyond: Unemployment increased from 2.3% to 2.5%. [MORE]