US: Hiring held up well in October – Wells Fargo

The economy added 683K jobs in October according to the US official employment report released on Friday. Analysts at Wells Fargo,  point out the winding down of the decennial census appears to have accounted for the bulk of the 138K-job drop in federal employment.

Key Quotes: 

“As has been the case recently, there are a lot of moving parts within the employment data. The winding down of the decennial census appears to have accounted for the bulk of the 138,000-job drop in federal employment. State and local payrolls (-130,000) and private education employment (-21,500) are both negatively impacted by the continuation of remote learning, which has meant less work for support staff. Private employers added 906,000 jobs, with gains evident in most major industries.”

“Aggregate hours worked—a good proxy for real GDP growth—rose 0.8% in October and is up at a 7.7% annual rate from its Q3 average, suggesting Q4 GDP growth may come in well above of current expectations.”

“The unemployment rate fell a full percentage point to 6.9%. Household employment jumped by 2.243 million in October, easily outpacing the 724,000-person rise in civilian employment. All the various measures of the unemployment rate also fell during the month. The one downbeat note on that front, however, was a 1.151-million person rise in long-term unemployment, which is becoming a more troubling issue.”