October 2012 Jobs News Summary

October Jobs Reports & Summaries: 

• October Summary: Report shows solid INCREASES in total jobs and private-sector jobs, but a decline in government jobs.  Unemployment is up one tenth of a percent to 7.9% as 578,000 people ENTER the job market and either look for jobs or find a job.  This is the largest civilian labor force that we have ever had in this country.  (The civilian labor force is the total of people employed and people actively looking for work.)  Of the 578,000 new people in the civilian labor force,   410,000 MORE people (in seasonally adjusted numbers) report themselves as employed in October vs. September and 170,000 MORE of those people report themselves as actively unemployed.  
• Economy adds 171,000 jobs; more jobs than were predicted.  Private sector jobs increase by 184,000; government jobs decreased this month by 13,000.  
• 245,000 more jobs reported this month than last when including upward revisions from the last two months.  After adding earlier revisions from July and August and adding the 386,000 jobs that were discovered in the benchmark revisions, we have 841,000 more jobs than we thought we had in August.
• Unemployment increases slightly to 7.9% as people enter the labor force.  This is one tenth of a point higher than when Obama took office, four tenths of a point lower than Obama's first full month in office.  Over 410,000 more people report themselves as employed.    170,000 more people reported themselves as unemployed and 578,000 people entered the work force.  
• Manufacturing jobs increase by 13,000; private service-producing jobs increase by 163,000.   
• Unemployment rates were even for most ethnic and age groups.  However, the unemployment rate for black people, which had ticked down .7% last month, ticked back up by .9% this month and now stands at 14.3%.  (However, this was due to people entering the labor force and not to people losing their jobs.)
• Unemployment declined to 3.8% from 4.1% for people 25 and over with Bachelor's degrees or higher.  The unemployment rate for young people under 25 with Bachelor's degrees or higher and not currently in school is 7.0%.
• Employment increased the most among people 55+ years of age.  In particular, employment increased the most among men  55+ years of age.  (It would be best to assume that this increase does not represent older people getting hired as much as it represents employed people turning 55 and aging into this older age group.)
• 233,000 more full-time workers this month; 124,000 fewer part-time workers.  We have 2,619,000 more full-time workers than we had a year ago.
• Though we have about 50,000 fewer self-employed workers than we had last month; and we now have 240,000 more self-employed workers than we did a year ago. 
• 3,087,000 more people employed than a year ago.
• 1,501,000 fewer people unemployed than a year ago.
• About 2,100,000 more jobs than we had a year ago.
• 4.8 million more jobs than at the "trough" of the recession (including benchmark revisions); 5.4 million more private sector jobs than at the "trough" of the recession (including benchmark revisions).

Watch for the following updates throughout the day:

• Private, government jobs gained, lost under Obama (October 2012 update)
• Jobs Lost/Created Year by Year Since 1999 (October 2012 Update)
• Private/government Jobs by Month for 2011 & 2012 (Updated for October)
• What was the unemployment rate when Obama took office compared to now? (Updated for October)
• How Many Jobs Have Been Created/Lost Under Obama?  (October update)
• How Many Jobs Lost/Gained in 2012 to date? (under construction)