America’s job creation count has been in flux for a while now, probably in connection to the pandemic. In August the hoped-for and economic policymaker predicted job gain was 720,000. But this figure fell substantially short at 250,000. September was equally (if not more) disappointing with a mere 194,000 jobs added to available options for the unemployed. These numbers did not fare well for predictions of a strong economic bounce back.
But October is looking brighter. According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been a drop in unemployment from 5.2 to 4.8 percent. The expectation was 5.1 percent so this should have been seen as good news. But not everyone felt that way. Economic Research Director at Indeed, Nick Bunker said that:
“This is quite a deflating report. The hope was that August was an anomaly but the fact is, the delta variant was still with us in September. One optimistic interpretation is that Covid-19 case counts are receding, so future months should be stronger. But the reality is that we are still in a pandemic.”
Another CNBC report explained that the 4.8 percent unemployment rate is actually the lowest that it has been since February 2020.