WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added 638,000 jobs in October, a solid pace though far fewer than needed to regain most of the jobs lost to the pandemic recession just as new viral cases are setting record highs.
The October gain suggested that a tentative economic recovery may remain intact even in the face of a surging viral outbreak.
The report Friday from the Labor Department said the unemployment rate fell to 6.9% from 7.9% in September.
Eight months after the virus struck the United States, the economy still has recovered barely half the 22 million jobs that were lost to the pandemic.
Meantime, he number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 751,000, a still-historically high level that shows that many employers keep cutting jobs in the face of the accelerating pandemic.
