OCTOBER 2026 BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS EMPLOYMENT SITUATION
Written by Michael Thervil
[BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS OCTOBER EMPLOYMENT SITUATION] According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the month of October, “Nonfarm Payroll Employment” rose by 165,000 in October, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent”. Job increases were seen in the Transportation, Utilities, Warehousing, and Healthcare/Social Assistance sectors. These three sectors tend to hire lower skilled service jobs that tend to employ workers with moderate expertise in driving, stocking, and administration and tech workers. Looking at the “Household Data”, it was reported that the unemployment rate showed a slight change to 4.1% or 7.1 million people being unemployed for the month of October. The biggest unemployment numbers were found in the Federal Government.
In terms of unemployment men stood at 3.9% followed by women at 3.6% and followed lastly by teenagers who stood at 13.0%. When race and ethnicity is considered, as always, the most unemployed were Black Americans at 6.6%, followed by Whites at 3.7%, followed by Hispanics at 4.7%, and coming in last were Asians who stood at 2.8% the lowest of all documented ethnicities. While many Americans are having to work two or more jobs in order to make ends meet due to the cost of inflation, oil, and gas; Americans who were facing long-term unemployment which is defined as being unemployed for more than 26 weeks or six months were made up of 2 million Americans.
While the standard definition of working full-time (40 hours a week), full-time hours have been reduced to an average of 34.2 hours per week with Americans earning on average $36.85 per hour. This finding registered to result in Americans taking home an estimated $1,260.27, this had no change over the previous two months. While rising employment numbers appear to look good on paper, the dawning truth is that there were more Americans working part-time rather than full-time with numbers sitting between “339,000 to 4.8 million”. The reason for this is because Americans who fell into this category failed to secure any full-time work. The number of Americans that fell into the “discourage workers” or workers who have given up looking for jobs for more than four weeks stood at roughly 448,000.
Additional data sets show an increase in professional and business services to the tune of 70,000, which is well over the 15,000 jobs created in this sector during the previous year. It was also reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that:
“Health care added 42,000 jobs in October, higher than the average monthly gain of 31,000 over the prior 12 months. In October, employment gains occurred in hospitals (+16,000), home health care services (+11,000), and outpatient care centers (+5,000).
In October, transportation and warehousing added 25,000 jobs, reflecting growth in couriers and messengers (+17,000) and air transportation (+4,000). Transportation and warehousing has added 104,000 jobs since a recent employment low in February, with couriers and messengers (+71,000) contributing most of the gain.
Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in October (+19,000) and has increased by 101,000 since a recent low in December 2025. In October, job gains occurred in computer and electronic product manufacturing (+7,000), machinery manufacturing (+4,000), and primary metal manufacturing (+4,000).”
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