From The Tribune staff reports
WASHINGTON — The October jobs report was released late last week and showed indications that the economy continues a strong rebound from coronavirus driven economic shutdown.
According to the report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers added 638,000 jobs in October far exceeding expectations. Job gains for September and August were also adjusted upward adding 15,000 more jobs than previously announced.
Unemployment claims continued to decline, falling to 6.9% in October which is down a full point from the September unemployment rate of 7.9%.
Most telling is the job participation rate which came in at 61.7% climbing from the September rate of 61.4%. The job participation rate is now within less than 2 percentage points of the pre-coronavirus number of 63.4%.
The job growth was primarily driven by the private sector with gains in manufacturing, retail and hospitality. Government jobs declined by 268,000 mainly due to 150,000 U.S. Census workers completing their jobs.
Jobs for Hispanics grew the most at 3% followed by 2.5% job growth for Blacks and 1.5% job growth for Whites.