Seems like Greenspan just can't make up his mind................
Unemployment rate in October sets new 24-year low
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's unemployment rate sank to 4.7 percent in October, a new 24-year low, pushed down by robust job gains in a broad range of industries.
Last month's seasonally adjusted rate of joblessness was the lowest since October 1973, when it was 4.6 percent, the Labor Department said today. Employers added 284,000 jobs to their payrolls and average hourly wages for non-supervisory jumped a strong 6 cents to a seasonally adjusted $12.41.
Many of the new hires were women. October's 4 percent unemployment rate for adult women was the lowest since January 1970.
The unexpectedly strong report was sure to raise new concerns about labor shortages. Before Southeast Asia's financial turmoil set off gyrations in U.S. financial markets, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had been warning tight labor markets could soon translate into an inflation-fueling acceleration in wage gains.
Economists now are divided over whether the stock market drop and a predicted sharp decline in U.S. exports to Asia will slow economic growth enough to prevent labor markets from tightening further. Otherwise, the Federal Reserve will consider raising interest rates in December or early next year.
The implications of the report for interest rates ruffled the bond market, which had been enjoying a rally as jittery investors bailed out of stock markets in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.
The yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond, which moves in the opposite direction to prices, jumped to 6.13 percent from a near 21-month low of 6.09 percent just before the report was released.
Job growth in October was the third strongest of the year and significantly higher than the 239,000 monthly average since the end of last year.
Manufacturing jobs jumped 54,000 - the largest gain in 7 1/2 years. Half the gain occurred in just two industries: industrial machinery and transportation equipment. Construction added 20,000 jobs, the most since May.
Service businesses added more than 200,000 jobs, including an unusually large 18,000 gain in finance industries. Computer services added 15,000 jobs and engineering and management services gained 19,000.
''Taken together, these two small industries, which comprise only 4 percent of payroll employment, have accounted for one in nine of the jobs added in the past year,'' said Katharine G. Abraham, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In October, the unemployment rate for women 20 years and older showed a marked decline, to 4 percent from 4.4 percent, while the rate for adult men was unchanged at 4.1 percent. Teen-age unemployment feel to 15.3 percent from 16.7 percent.
Among whites, the rate fell to 4.3 percent to 4.1 percent, and among blacks from 9.6 percent to 9.5 percent. Hispanic unemployment increased to 8 percent from 7.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the average workweek for all private workers was unchanged at 34.5 hours in October while the average manufacturing workweek rose to 42 hours from 41.8. |
