October jobs down 190,000, unemployment hits 10.2%

The October jobs report was just released. It showed the economy losing 190,000 jobs last month, slightly worse than the -175,000 forecast. However, September's job loss was revised to only -219,000 from -263,000, while August's reading also improved to -154,000 from -201,000. This is the 22nd month in a row that the U.S. economy has shed jobs.

The unemployment rate spiked to 10.2% from 9.8%, well above the 9.9% forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg and the worst reading since April 1983. The "all in" unemployment rate that includes people marginally employed, those working part-time because they can't find full-time work, etc., rose to 17.5%, the highest since they began tracking it in 1994.

Average hourly earnings were a bright spot, up 0.3% against a forecast for +0.1%. But average weekly hours held at 33, tying the worst level in U.S. history (the data goes back to 1964). The diffusion index, which measures how many industries are shedding jobs vs. how many are adding them, weakened to 33.8 from 37.5.