October's Jobs Figures

This morning's jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was more of the "one step up, one step back" phenomenon we've been seeing in the unemployment figures for some time now. Taken at face value, the addition of 80,000 jobs to the economy in October looks pretty feeble; it's the fewest number of jobs we've added in four months, and was below most economists' estimates.

At the same time, though, the official unemployment rate ticked down, from 9.1 percent to 9.0 percent. We've seen such anomalies in the past, with a small number of jobs being accompanied by a reduction in the overall unemployment rate. Sometimes, it's a result of people leaving the labor force and shrinking the overall number of employed persons, which is obviously not good for the economy.

But this month's figures are different: The biggest reason the unemployment number dropped is because the jobs figures for both August and September were revised upward. Instead of the original figure of 57,000 jobs added to nonfarm payroll employment in August, the government now says it was actually 104,000, and September was bumped up from 103,000 to 158,000. In other words, hiring was stronger than initially thought throughout the late summer, and the unemployment rate probably ticked down at some point back then.

On the other hand, those stronger months in the recent past make the October figure a little more disappointing. Maybe it too will get revised upward at some point.