November 09, 2010 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment up in October 2010

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 in October, reflecting job gains in mining and a number of service-providing industries.

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Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services continued to increase in October, with a gain of 35,000. Temporary help services has added 451,000 jobs since a recent low in September 2009.

Retail trade employment rose by 28,000 in October, including increases in automobile dealers (+6,000) and in electronics and appliance stores (+5,000). After reaching a trough in December 2009, employment in retail trade has expanded by 128,000.

Health care continued to add jobs in October (+24,000). The gain was in line with the average increase over the prior 12 months (+20,000).

Mining employment continued to trend up (+8,000) over the month. Since a recent low in October 2009, mining has added 88,000 jobs.

Within leisure and hospitality, a job loss in arts, entertainment, and recreation (-26,000) in October offset a gain in food services and drinking place employment (+24,000). The food services industry has added 143,000 jobs since a recent low in December 2009.

Employment in manufacturing changed little in October (-7,000) and, on net, has essentially been flat since May. The industry had added 134,000 jobs during the first 5 months of this year.

Government employment overall was little change in October. Employment in local government, excluding education, decreased by 14,000 over the month and has fallen by 123,000 over the past 12 months.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. See "The Employment Situation — October 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1519, for more information.

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