Manufacturing Sheds 5,000 More Jobs In October

ByJohn S. McClenahen In stark contrast to the 337,000 jobs created overall in the U.S. nonfarm economy in October, the manufacturing sector lost 5,000 additional jobs, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Nov. 5. Indeed, the department noted that manufacturing employment has shown little change since May, a contrast to the four months from February through May, when 82,000 manufacturing jobs were created. Construction and service-sector industries were the main drivers of October's unexpectedly large jobs gain. Construction added 71,000 jobs last month, with "some of this unusually large gain [reflecting] rebuilding and cleanup activity in the Southeast following the four hurricanes that struck the U.S. in August and September," said Kathleen P. Utgoff, the commissioner of the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment in professional and business services rose by 97,000 in October, with 48,000 of those jobs in temporary help services, she added. The U.S. unemployment rate, which is based on a different survey from the one tracking jobs created or lost, actually rose one-tenth of a percentage point last month as more people were actively looking for work.