Unemployment Plunges to 4.4% in October

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

92,000 jobs added in October

148,000 jobs added in September (versus the 51,000 first reported)

230,000 jobs added in August (versus the 188,000 previously reported)

Workers’ average hourly earnings climbed to $16.91 in October, a sizable 0.4 percent increase from September.  That increase was bigger than the 0.3 percent rise economists were expecting. Over the last 12 months, wages grew by 3.9 percent.

The average time that the unemployed spent in their search for work in October was 16.5 weeks, an improvement from the average 17.4 weeks registered in September.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15543862/

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Very nice.  Not too hot, not too cold.

[John Dibble]

[sarcasm]These figures were released just in time for the election - very suspicious, don't you think?[/sarcasm]

[opebo]

Workers’ average hourly earnings climbed to $16.91

What a pathetic average wage!  Mere subsistence.  And that's the average - what's the median, $12/hour?!

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

[sarcasm]These figures were released just in time for the election - very suspicious, don't you think?[/sarcasm]

The release dates of economic data are published months in advance. 

For employment numbers, I believe the date it is the first Friday of every month.  Been that way for at least 10 years.

[John Dibble]

[sarcasm]These figures were released just in time for the election - very suspicious, don't you think?[/sarcasm]

The release dates of economic data are published months in advance. 

For employment numbers, I believe the date it is the first Friday of every month.  Been that way for at least 10 years.

Notice the sarcasm tags? No need to explain it - I was just being facetious.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

[sarcasm]These figures were released just in time for the election - very suspicious, don't you think?[/sarcasm]

The release dates of economic data are published months in advance. 

For employment numbers, I believe the date it is the first Friday of every month.  Been that way for at least 10 years.

slight correction:

First Friday of the month at 8:30 ET

The time of day the data is released is also known months in advance.  Having exact release dates and times for economic reports obviously makes sense, since that way everyone will know the exact time to expect a report and no one in the market gets the data before anyone else.

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Notice the sarcasm tags? No need to explain it - I was just being facetious.

Cool.  I figured you were too knowledgable to have been serious.

[MODU]

Seems about right.  Good news as always, but I question on how long we can maintain such a low unemployment rate.  Like in the DC area where we actually have an employment shortage, salaries are getting a bit too high to be sustained for a long period of time.  Companies are going to have to start trimming back some.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

but I question on how long we can maintain such a low unemployment rate.  Like in the DC area where we actually have an employment shortage, salaries are getting a bit too high to be sustained for a long period of time.  Companies are going to have to start trimming back some.

yeah, the bond market didn't like the report. 

[adam]

Good to hear. However, as we all know, this is just a GOP ploy to steal the election...because all good news that comes from a Republican time of year must be salted with fallacy.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

U.S unemployment figures are even more of a joke than the jokes most other countries come out with (for several reasons, but the most important of which is the fact that the longterm unemployed are not counted).

What's the employment rate like? Activity rates?

[MODU]

How about all the jobs being held by illegals?  Man, add them into the mix, and who knows how far the rate would rise/fall. 

Everyone knows that the unemployment % is not a complete number.  It misses self-contractors, private practices, and so on, as well as those that have spent way too much time without a job.  But, it all seems to balance out within a percentage point, so it's a fairly decent estimate of the economic conditions.

[Beet]

Solid news for the economy. I didn't hear anyone saying this was some kind of political conspiracy, I don't think anyone thinks of monthly economic statistics like that.

The election issue this year of course has never been about the economic performance, unless you mean how the government spends its money, which is a different issue. The Republicans have chosen to campaign on the theme "vote for us because if you don't the terrorists win," and the Democrats have chosen to campaign on Iraq and some specific economic plans like the minimum wage.

The 230,000 added in August is what the economy needs to be getting on a regular basis. During the 1990's expansion our labor force was smaller than it is today, and we had an average of 225,000 jobs generated every month for about eight years. The current number just suggest that unemployment is dropping because not as many people are going into the job market. Still, the August/September numbers are an improvement over most of this expansion, and we'll see if they can continue to hold up. The stock market might not like it though... rising wages is bad for profits.