Employers added another 261,000 non-farm jobs to the nation's payrolls in October, but none were from trucking, according to a Labor Department report issued Friday. A separate report showed another good month for the nation's factories.
While the job gains pushed the nation's unemployment rate down to a year 17-year low of 4.1%, the number of job additions was below the 310,000 expected by Wall Street.
The 33,000 job losses that were first reported for September were revised to show 18,000 jobs were gained during the month while the number of job additions in August was revised higher from 169,000 to 208,000.
Since January, the unemployment rate has declined by 0.7 of a percentage point, and the number of unemployed persons has decreased by 1.1 million.
During October, employment in food services and drinking places increased sharply, mostly offsetting a decline in September that largely reflected the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Also last month, job gains occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, and health care.
In the for-hire trucking sector, there were 100 job losses during October while the wider transportation and warehousing sector saw 8,400 job gains, due in large part to increases in the air transportation, couriers and messengers and warehousing and storage categories.
The overall October job gain, and a three-month average of 162,000 job additions per month, are consistent with 2.5% to 3% percent economic growth in the fourth quarter, with steady consumer spending, better business investment and a likely Federal Reserve December interest rate hike, according to John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities.
He noted after the strongest monthly gain of the expansion, average hourly earnings growth stalled in October.
“The weak read stemmed in part from the rebound in leisure and hospitality employment, which pays the lowest average wages among major industries,” Silvia said. “Wages
