The economy added a solid 161,000 jobs in October

Harold Maass, The Week US's avatar
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The economy added jobs in October.
(Image credit: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

The U.S. economy added 161,000 non-farm jobs in October, according to the U.S. jobs report released Friday. The gains fell just short of the 175,000 increase predicted by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Hiring figures from the two prior months also were adjusted slightly higher than initially reported. Together, the figures added to recent upbeat data supporting expectations that the Federal Reserve will decide that the economy is strong enough to justify nudging interest rates higher in December. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent in October, down from 5 percent, and hourly wages rose by 0.4 percent.

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Harold Maass, The Week US
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.