Research
November 01, 2024

Total U.S. jobs

Hurricanes and a Strike Flatten U.S. Job Growth in October, Adding Only 12,000 Jobs

Amid the dual impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which dealt severe blows to the southeastern U.S., coupled with a strike at Boeing, October's nonfarm payrolls saw a mere 12,000 increase—marking the weakest growth since December 2020. Though this is a “noisy” reading, it was largely anticipated. Despite the month’s sluggish job growth in October, a look at the broader trend reveals a resilient labor market. Moreover, employment is likely to rebound solidly in November.

So far in 2024, the U.S. economy has added 1.7 million new jobs, down from the nearly 2.5 million created during the same period in 2023. This brings U.S. job growth to 46 consecutive months of increases, with 16.5 million jobs added in that span. Furthermore, total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment now stands approximately 6.7 million jobs, or 4.4%, above the pre-pandemic peak of February 2020, reaching a new record high of 159.0 million.

The unemployment rate was 4.1% for the second straight month, but the number of unemployed individuals rose from 6,834,000 to 6,984,000. At the same time, the labor force participation rate edged down from 62.7% to 62.6%.  

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers among private sector workers rose 4.1% over the past 12 months, up from 4.0% year-over-year in September. Despite inching up in the latest data, average hourly earnings have largely trended lower since peaking at 7.0% in March 2022.


October brought mixed results for job growth across sectors. Gains were led by private education and health services and state and local government, while notable declines hit professional and business services and manufacturing, particularly in strike-affected transportation services. Eating and drinking places saw a modest increase of 3,700 jobs in October, following a larger gain of 39,300 in September. Overall, the private sector lost 28,000 jobs, while government employment rose by 40,000. Here’s the breakdown of sector employment changes for October, ranked from highest to lowest: 
  • Private education and health services: +57,000
  • Local government: +21,000
  • State government: +18,000
  • Construction: +8,000
  • Information: +3,000
  • Federal government: +1,000
  • Mining and logging: +1,000
  • Other services: +1,000
  • Financial activities: unchanged
  • Trade, transportation, and utilities: -1,000 (retail sales down 6,400)
  • Leisure and hospitality: -4,000 (eating and drinking places up 3,700)
  • Manufacturing: -46,000
  • Professional and business services: -47,000

Track more economic indicators and read more analysis and commentary from the Association's economists.