More Americans went back to work in October as Covid-19 cases receded, indicating the world's largest economy had overcome the obstacle posed by the Delta wave of the virus and provided President Joe Biden with a much-needed boost.
The better-than-expected report from the Labor Department on Friday showed the US economy added 531,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent, both signs of a vigorous pace in hiring by American businesses.
It was exactly the kind of news Biden was hoping for after a week that saw his Democrats suffer a sweeping defeat in a state elections for governor, while the fate of one of the two spending bills he has staked his presidency on remains uncertain even as House lawmakers prepare to vote on both later Friday.
Biden hailed what he called a "historically strong recovery," spurred by massive government stimulus spending and rapid deployment of vaccines.
"America is getting back to work. Our economy is starting to work for more Americans," he said at the White House.
He noted the drop in applications for unemployment benefits in recent weeks, saying it is a "sign we're on the right track."
Workers took jobs at businesses across the economy, the data said, from manufacturing to transportation and warehousing to leisure and hospitality, the sector encompassing bars and restaurants that suffered the brunt of the downturn when the pandemic began.
"We got an unambiguously strong October jobs report -- big job gain, unemployment fell, hours worked increased and wage growth is strong," tweeted Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics.
He called it "strong evidence that as the Delta-wave of the pandemic winds down, the economy is revving back up."
The pace of hiring in August and September had tapered as the fast-spreading Delta variant again snarled business, but the latest report brought welcome news with revisions showing hiring was 235,000 higher than first reported.
That means the economy added an average of 442,000 jobs a month over the past three months.
- Ground left to cover -
But the data showed there were still 4.2 million jobs missing from the economy compared to February 2020, before the world's largest Covid-19 outbreak began, a sign of the rebuilding yet to be done.
The numbers of permanent job losers and people on temporary layoff changed little over the month, and remain higher than before the pandemic, according to the report.
The labor force participation rate indicating the share of the people in the workforce -- working or looking for a job -- was unchanged in October at 61.6 percent.
The Federal Reserve will surely take note of that as it gauges whether the economy has returned to full employment.
Fed chief Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank wants the labor market to heal further before it decides to lift the benchmark lending rate off zero, which many economists expect it to do next year.
Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the stalled participation rate could start moving again since pandemic unemployment benefits expired in early September, and jobless Americans may soon exhaust their savings.
"We remain very hopeful that most of the people pushed out of the labor force by Covid will return, filling the 10 million-plus job openings over the next few months and easing upward pressure in wages," Shepherdson said.
With inflation worryingly high amid global supply chain snarls -- another of the Fed's major concerns -- the data showed wages rose again last month, and are up 4.9 percent over the past year.
- Bars and restaurants rehire -
Among the more concerning trends in the September data was a flatlining in hiring at bars and restaurants, but in October those businesses added 119,000 positions, making up the bulk of the gain in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Professional and business services added 100,000 employees and manufacturers gained 60,000 positions, including 28,000 in the motor vehicle and parts industry even as automakers navigate a global shortage of semiconductors that has hampered production.
The transportation and warehousing industry added 54,000 jobs last month, and the report noted it was above its level before the pandemic by about 150,000.
Schools continued to lose staff, according to the data, with local government education falling by 43,000 positions and state government education losing 22,000 jobs.
There was little movement in the US racial disparities in employment, with Black Americans seeing higher overall joblessness at 7.9 percent and Hispanics at 5.9 percent as compared to the 4.0 percent unemployment rate for white Americans.
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