Associated Press
Friday, November 4, 2011
WASHINGTON — The American job market improved modestly in October, and economists looking deeper into the numbers found reasons for optimism — or at least what counts for optimism in this agonizingly slow economic recovery.
The nation added 80,000 jobs. That was fewer than the 100,000 that economists expected, but it was the 13th consecutive month of job gains. Fears of a new recession that loomed over the economy this summer have receded.
However, the job gain was the smallest in four months. And because the population is always growing, it takes many more jobs, about 125,000 a month, to keep up with population growth, more to bring down the unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate nudged down, to 9 percent from 9.1 in September.
"Those are pretty good signs," said Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "We're ...