October 2014: unemployment rate continues slow descent with addition of 214,000 jobs

the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were plenty of new jobs available in October, and the unemployment rate slid down another 0.1 percent from September, to 5.8 percent for the month. This decrease means that only 9 million Americans are currently unemployed, down from 9.6 million people that were unemployed in August. (The number of people who are considered long-term unemployed remained consistent at 2.9 million individuals, as did the number of people working part time due to the economy, at 7 million individuals.) More than 214,000 new non-farm jobs were added in October, just a very slight dip from the previous monthly average of 222,000 jobs. October’s new jobs were spread across several industries. The food and beverage industry added a whopping 42,000 jobs, up significantly from its previous monthly average of 26,000 jobs. Professional and business services saw an increase of 37,000 jobs, especially in temporary services and computer systems (15,000 jobs and 7,000 jobs, respectively). The healthcare market saw 25,000 new jobs added, with more than 75 percent of them being in ambulatory services; retail sales saw 27,000 new jobs, with just about half of them being general merchandise stores. The manufacturing, transportation and construction sectors also saw small increases (between 12,000 and 15,000 jobs each), while the government, mining, information and financial markets saw little change from last month. In addition to the jobs that have been created, 2014 has seen a 2 percent increase in the average hourly wage for non-farm private workers, bringing the total up 3 cents, to $24.57 per hour.]]>