US unemployment rate falls to 6.9% in October as economy regains 638,000 jobs

The Labor Department on Friday said that US unemployment rate fell full point to 6.9% in October, defying expectations ahead of this week’s Presidential election which remains indecisive, reported AFP.

The decline came as the economy added 638,000 jobs previous month, far more than analysts had been anticipating, despite surge in coronavirus cases and Congress’s failure to pass another spending package to assist the economy’s revival.

The state of the economy was undoubtedly on voters’ minds when they went to cast their ballots this week to choose whether to give President Donald Trump a second term or replace him with the opposition leader Joe Biden.

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But Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics admonished that employment is set for a slowdown.

“The risk is high of a deceleration in job gains from rising virus transmissions that will result in business closures and job losses,” she said in an analysis.

“Overall, diminishing job growth and missing fiscal support will likely weigh on incomes and spending and will slow the economic rebound going forward,” she added.

The Labor Department report mentioned a widespread decline in unemployment is impacting all races and age groups, while the labor force participation rate signifying the share of working age population who have jobs or are actively looking for work, increased gradually to 61.7% previous month.

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Numerous people are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job rebounded last month after falling in September, the report added.

Moreover, sectors affected by the shutdowns like leisure and hospitality recovered ground with 271,000 jobs added in October; the majority of which were in food and drinking places.