U.S. Job Growth Reaccelerates Much More Than Expected In October

(RTTNews) - Job growth in the U.S. showed a substantial reacceleration in the month of October, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday.

The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 271,000 jobs in October following a downwardly revised increase of 137,000 jobs in September.

Economists had expected an increase of about 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 142,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The Labor Department pointed to notable job growth in professional and business services, health care, retail, food services and drinking places, and construction.

The strong job growth helped push the unemployment rate down to 5.0 percent in October from 5.1 percent in September, matching economist estimates.

With the modest decrease, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since hitting a matching rate in April of 2008.

The drop in the unemployment rate reflected a 320,000 person increase in the household employment survey compared to a 313,000 person increase in the labor force.

The report also said average hourly employee earnings climbed by $0.09 or 0.4 percent to $25.20 in October after inching up by a penny in the previous month.

The year-over-year growth in hourly earnings subsequently accelerated to 2.5 percent, the fastest rate of growth since 2009.

Most analysts have interpreted the closely watched monthly jobs report as an indication that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its next meeting in December.

Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial said, "The overriding message from today's employment report is the soft patch is over and the rate hike is on."

"After all, the only reason the Fed did not raise rates in September is a laundry list of stuff—overseas economic weakness, oil patch weakness, strong dollar, market volatility—that might weigh on the U.S. economy," he added. "A strong October payroll number goes a long way toward undermining that concern."

The Fed is scheduled to announce its next monetary policy decision following a two-day meeting concluding on December 16th.