The U.S. economy added 80,000 jobs in October and unemployment fell, barely, to 9 percent, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report. On jobs added, it seems that it was less than economists had forecast, Reuters explains: "While job growth last month was less than expected, details of the report suggested the economy was gaining some momentum." From the Department's release:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in October (+80,000),and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in the private sector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional and businesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining. Government employment continued to trend down.

But perhaps even better news are the upward revisions of the last two disappointing monthly reports. The BLS release notes that it's calculated that over 100,000 more jobs were created in August and September than they had previously estimated:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from +57,000 to +104,000, and the change for September was revised from +103,000 to +158,000.

The jobs reports arrives on the heels of yesterday's Labor Department figures showing that  jobless claims filings had dipped below the magic 400,000 level, a signal that the U.S. is creating more jobs than losing.

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Erik Hayden