America added 638,000 jobs last month but is still down 10 million since the pandemic started
(CNN) -- America's jobs recovery continued in October, as jobs were added for a sixth month in a row and the unemployment rate fell further, the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday. That said, the nation still remains down about 10 million jobs since February.
Votes are still being counted and it is yet to be decidedwho the next president will be. But whoever takes the White House has their work cut out for them. The US job market needs further fixing and the unemployed need more support to make ends meet.
The economy added 638,000 jobs last month, more than economists had expected. It was a slowdown from the prior months.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.9% from 7.9% in September. It had been the highest jobless rate going into a presidential election.
The drop in joblessness came as a surprise to economists — the consensus estimate had been 7.7% for October.
Many workers returned to their jobs, as shown by a decline in the number of people on temporary layoff, and little change in the number of permanently unemployed workers.
It's a sign that the longer-term damage from the pandemic might not be as bad as feared after all, said Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at Capital Economics.
"We saw unemployment drop more than expected on the back of an increase in the labor force and basically unchanged permanent layoffs. You can't really complain about this report, aside from the fact there is still a long way to go," Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, told CNN Business.
Still there's a long way to go for the recovery. If the current pace of improvements continues, the job market would only be back at its pre-pandemic level in February 2022, said labor economist Betsey Stevenson.
This is a developing story. It will be updated
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