Employers in the United States added 12,000 workers to their payrolls in October the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent.
Economists had been expecting 110,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent.
The range of expectations was particularly wide this month, with the hurricanes and flooding that hit parts of the country mid-month making it hard to predict how many workers would be added to payrolls nationwide. Estimates in Econoday’s survey ranged from 57,000 too 180,000. Some economists have even forecast a payroll contraction.
“It is likely that payroll employment estimates in some industries were affected by the hurricanes; however, it is not possible to quantify the net effect on
the over-the-month change in national employment, hours, or earnings estimates because the establishment survey is not designed to…
