Even though the federal government was shut down for 16 days during October, the economy in the U.S. added 204,000 jobs during the month. The number for October was well above expectations of economists.
Even more good news came through about hiring over the latter part of the summer. Revisions made for August as well as September showed that another 60,000 jobs had been created.
Economists had been expecting job growth to be weaker because of the uncertainties the shutdown and debt ceiling battles in Washington had created.
The new jobs report also indicated that the rate of unemployment increased to 7.3% from September’s 7.2%, which had been expected by economists.
Nearly 448,000 workers who had been furloughed during the shutdown were counted as temporarily layoffs, and the following report on December 6, will most likely show those same people as being hired back in November.
Overall, things are not completely rosy. Close to 11.3 million people in the U.S. continued without work during October, with over 4 million having not worked in six months or longer.
Job increases came from a variety of different sectors. Retailers increased jobs by 44,000, business and professionals added 44,000, bars and restaurants hired over 29,000 and the manufacturing sector added 12,000.
The Federal government made 12,000 cuts, of which one third were in the U.S. Postal Service. Not counting the postal service, jobs with the federal government were at their lowest since 2009.
For earnings, Groupon is among stocks being watched on Friday. The online coupon site is reporting its profit for the third quarter of two cents a share, which came in one cent higher than projections.
Priceline.com had earnings of $17.30 a share for the third quarter, which beat estimates from analysts of $16.15. However, the current guidance by the company is far below the consensus of analysts on Wall Street.
Gap issued an outlook that was better than expected and reported same store sales for October that were better than analyst’s projections.
Monster Beverage missed its estimates by 4 cents per share with profit for the third quarter of 53 cents a share.
