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U.S. Nearly Triples Job Numbers to 531,000 Ahead of the Holiday Season

The unemployment rate also dropped from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent.

The U.S. added 531,000 jobs in October, nearly tripling the September amount as federal unemployment aid ends and the country bounces back from the Delta wave of COVID-19. The unemployment rate also dropped from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent, a further sign of growth. The gain was an increase from analysts’ expectations, which had forecasted an increase to 450,000. Sectors that saw the most sizable increases include the restaurant and bar industries, along with factories and offices. “This was a strong employment report that shows the resilience of the labor market recovery from the pandemic,” Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco, told The New York Times. “I think we will see a pretty strong bounce back in economic growth in the fourth quarter.” In perhaps the biggest indicator of semi-normal conditions, the number of people who worked remotely last month dropped from roughly 13 percent to about 11 percent.