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The latest jobs report was not very encouraging. Labor force participation fell, unemployment ticked up slightly, and some companies report making layoffs as we near the mid-point of the fourth quarter.
Manufacturing was markedly down last month, but analysts attributed that to striking workers in the auto sector and expect that number to rebound in the November report. The figures for underemployed Americans also ticked up last month.
The public sector showed substantial employment growth, and one analyst said that was not entirely unexpected. “It’s usually a bad thing when job growth is led by the public service, but in this case, it is long overdue. The private sector jobs recovery was much stronger and much faster than that of the public sector,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
The CNBC article also goes on to point out: "Other areas showed meager job growth and saw employment shrink. Mining and logging, utilities and retail trade combined to add just 2,500 jobs. Information shed 9,000 jobs, while transportation and warehousing lost more than 12,000 jobs.”
“Many workers in trucking, for example, are finding very, very soft economic conditions. You lose one job and it is not easy to find another. The same is true in tech,” Pollak said.
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