Jobs report: Employment rose by 531,000 in October

The U.S. economy continues its rally from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic as the nation added 531,000 jobs in October.

According to a news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the bump in employment saw the employment rate drop 0.2 percentage point to 4.6 percent with big job gains being seen in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, manufacturing, as well as transportation and warehousing.

Healthcare saw a modest increase of 37,000 jobs last month. Most were added to home health care services, with more than 16,000, and nursing care facilities, with more than 12,000. Overall, the industry is still down 460,000 jobs since February 2020, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release says.

The current number of unemployed persons sits at about 7.4 million continuing the trend and is well down from the high at the end of the February to April 2020 recession. But unemployment is still well above where it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when there were only 5.7 million unemployed Americans, according to the release.

The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 61.6 percent in October, down 1.7 percentage points from February 2020, while the employment-population ratio was little changed at 58.8 percent last month. Employment-population ratio is up from its low of 51.3 percent in April 2020 but is still below the 61.1 percent seen in February 2020, the release says.

Leisure and hospitality saw an increase of 164,000 jobs in October. Meanwhile professional and business services added 100,000 jobs and manufacturing added 60,000.Transportation and warehousing also added 54,000 jobs in October bringing the industry to 149,000 jobs more than the February 2020 level, according to the release.