This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that total non-farm payrolls increased by 114,000 in September, while the unemployment rate ticked down by 0.3 percent, to 7.8 percent.
Health-care employment, as has been the trend, grew steadily, as did jobs in transportation and warehousing. Manufacturing jobs dropped again, this month by 16,000.
The previous two months’ numbers were adjusted up substantially: from 96,000 to 141,000 in August, for instance. The employment-to-population ratio bumped up a bit, from 58.3 to 58.7 percent, and the labor-force-participation rate rose (just 0.1 percent) from its decades-long low last month. If you’re looking for a dark lining, there’s this: “The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose from 8.0 million in August to 8.6 million in September.”