On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said he would be the greatest jobs president in the history of the United States. Trump is known for hyperbole, but October’s jobs gains were another sign that he has been big for big business.
Companies added 250,000 employees for the month of October — far better than estimates of 190,000 by Refinitiv — while unemployment remains at a near-50-year low at 3.7 percent.
Average hourly earnings also increased by 5 cents an hour for the month and 83 cents year-over-year, which is a 3.1 percent gain, the best since 2009.
There are still more than seven million job openings and about six million unemployed, leaving more job openings than job seekers for the first time ever, according to a recent article by Investor’s Business Daily.
More on the numbers, per CNBC:
Job growth blew past expectations in October and year-over-year wage gains jumped past 3 percent for the first time since the Great Recession, the Labor Department reported Friday.
“The job market is doing remarkably well, particularly this late in the expansion,” said Jim Baird, partner and chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “This report adds yet another data point to a narrative that has been positive for the labor market this year. Little seems to stand in the way of the economy finishing 2018 out on solid footing.”
The ranks of the employed rose to a fresh record 156.6 million and the employment-to-population ratio increased to 60.6 percent, the highest level since December 2008, according to the department’s household survey. That headline jobless number stayed level even amid a two-tenths of a percentage point rise in the labor force participation rate to 62.9 percent.
Those counted as outside the labor force tumbled by 487,000 to 95.9 million.
But it’s not just jobs going around, but also wages are going up, which is something the Federal Reserve is paying close attention to in regards to the interest rate because higher wage growth feeds into the Fed’s desire to raise rates to combat inflation.
Over the past year, the U.S. has averaged 211,000 in job gains each month under Trump.
October’s Big Winners By Industry
- Health care: 36,000
- Manufacturing: 32,000
- Construction: 30,000
- Transportation and warehousing: 42,000
- Leisure and hospitality: 42,000
- Professional and business services: 35,000 (516,00 12-month gains)
- Full-time positions: 318,000 (average work week increased .01 to 34.5 hours per week)
- Part-time positions: 242,000