Cool, cool, cooling jobs

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1% and 12,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy during October. It's a lower-than-expected jobs number, from a period that saw two significant hurricanes in the southeast and a strike from workers at Boeing. Today on the show, we explain the complexities of calculating the monthly job numbers, and why the Bureau of Labor Statistics can be trusted.

Related episodes:
Behind the scenes of Jobs Friday (Apple / Spotify / NPR)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.6	This is the indicator for planet money.
0:13.4	I'm Adrienne Ma.
0:14.3	I'm Waylon Wong.
0:15.5	And I'm Darien Woods.
0:16.5	And it is Jobs Friday.
0:18.8	It is the day of the month where we check in on how the economy is working for real people,
0:24.4	as opposed to not real people.
0:26.5	Hardboard cutouts of people.
0:28.3	It was just Halloween yesterday.
0:30.1	The ghouls, the ghost, the ghost jobs, we're not counting those.
0:33.9	In keeping with our usual Jobs Friday tradition, we will start with the headline numbers from the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly jobs report.
0:42.8	The report which came out this morning shows unemployment in October was at 4.1%.
0:48.5	So no change from the month before.
0:50.6	Also, the economy added just 12,000 new jobs, and the BLS revised its previous estimates for
0:57.3	jobs gains in August and September, saying that they were lower by about a combined 112,000. So
1:04.5	that is good news, at least on the surface for Republicans and less good for the Democrats going
1:10.4	into the election next week.
1:11.7	I think we can expect this lackluster jobs report to become sort of a political football this
1:17.0	week. That is definitely true, especially considering the positive economic data we've seen
1:21.3	recently. Inflation cooling, consumer spending and GDP growing. Yes, although it's very
1:26.8	important to say here that economists expected October employment to be weak.
	...

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