Thread by @HBoushey

New employment data -- some quick reactions ... 1/n

From the BLS Commissioner's Report: "Employment in public- and private-sector education declined in September [relative to August]. In the public sector, employment in education fell by 49,000 in state government and by 231,000 in local government." bls.gov/news.release/j…

Ah ... I should start w/the headline: The economy added 661,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent. We are still down 10.7 million jobs relative to February, before the pandemic hit the USA. 3/n

Here's a # policymakers need to know: # of people searching for work for 27 weeks or more rose by 781,000 to 2.4 million. Regular unemployment benefits end after 26 weeks. Congress will need to act to extend the # of weeks for these benefits. 4/n

And, by the way, I hope you're still thinking about the job market this morning amidst all the other news. The pandemic has led to the loss of over 200,000 lives in the US and crippled our economy. Today's data shows how far we have to go to recover the jobs lost.

In September, the share of people in the labor force fell and while unemployment fell for Whites, "[unemployment] rates for teenagers (15.9 percent), Blacks (12.1 percent), and Hispanics (10.3 percent) changed little over the month." bls.gov/news.release/j… 6/n

Given that the pandemic isn't over, the change in this # concerns me: "22.7 percent of employed people teleworked in September because of the coronavirus pandemic, down from 24.3 percent in August." 7/n

Employers brought folks back to work in September: Of those who are no longer unemployed, 1.5 million of them had been on temporary layoff. Yet, at the same time, 345,000 people transitioned from temporary to permanent layoff. 8/n