Voters may have shown disapproval of the direction Washington is taking them, but the monthly jobs report from the Labor Department today showed that the economy continues to grow. While job growth slowed in October, the unemployment rate dropped again to 5.8 percent.
Today’s report shows that 214,000 jobs were added in October, mostly focused in the food services, retail trade and health care sectors. The number of unemployed persons dipped to 9 million, and that number has declined by 1.2 million over the course of the year.
However, there are still 2.9 million people who are among the long-term unemployed, making up 32 percent of the unemployed.
The New York Times notes that October marked 56 straight months of job growth in the private sector. Unfortunately, it was well below what analysts had expected and under the average monthly unemployment gain of 227,000 so far this year.
Exit polls on Tuesday showed that 78 percent of voters polled were somewhat worried or very worried about the state of the economy. After all, many aren’t seeing how the economy is getting better, since their wages are stagnant and the jobs that are coming back aren’t for the middle class. That could also explain why voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska all voted for minimum wage increases, even though Democrats lost power.
image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com