The month of October brought consistently positive, yet moderate, jobs news, according to reports released by Automatic Data Processing and the Department of Labor Thursday.
ADP reported that the private sector added 158,000 jobs from September to October. About 81,000 of those jobs were created at large companies, followed by 50,000 positions at small companies and 27,000 gains at medium-sized firms.
Jobless claims continued their downward trajectory with only 363,000 applications for unemployment insurance filed during the week ending Oct. 27.
That is 9,000 filings lower than the previous week’s revised figure of 372,000 applications and the 392,000 filings recorded two weeks ago.
The four-week moving average hit 367,250, a decline of 1,500 applications from last week.
The total number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the period ending Oct. 13 hit 5 million, up 112,147 filings from a week earlier.
