October Job Growth Report: U.S. Adds 261,000 Jobs

October marked the start of the final quarter of 2022 giving us a glimpse into what we can expect to see throughout the end of the year.

As the 22nd consecutive month of job growth in the United States, experts speculate as to whether or not we can expect to see this trend continue moving into 2023.

Is the U.S. job market growing right now?

Though corporations like Zillow continue with rounds of mass layoffs — most recently laying off 5% of its workforce — The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment grew by 261,000 new jobs in October.

While new jobs were down from September and unemployment rose slightly to 3.7%, the new jobs rate was actually higher than experts predicted for October.

U.S. unemployment rates by group:

• Adult women: 3.4%
• Adult men: 3.3%
• Teenagers: 11%
• Whites: 3.2%
• Blacks: 5.9%
• Asians: 2.9%
• Hispanics: 4.2%

Did the Twitter purchase affect the job market?

As Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter became final on October 27th, there was no real impact to the job market.

However, with recent mass layoffs at Twitter including top executives, totaling around 3,700 employees the far-reaching implications on the job market have yet to be determined.

Additional employment statistics for October 2022:

• The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was 5.7 in October.
• Four new questions were added to the household survey in October 2022 to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market.
• The number of individuals employed part-time for economic reasons was at 3.7 million in October.

U.S. industries with notable job growth in October

Health care job growth

The health care industry continued to grow in October, adding 53,000 jobs.

Ambulatory health care services accounted for 31,000 of these jobs while nursing and residential care facilities accounted for 11,000 jobs.

Are more mass layoffs coming this year?

With the continued mass layoffs at Twitter and the impending mass layoffs coming from Meta, it’s clear that major corporations are planning to conduct mass layoffs through the end of 2022 and possibly into 2023.

If you or someone you know has lost their job due to a mass layoff, there are strategies to adopt that will ease your transition and make your job search a success.

In the meantime, if an economic downturn were to occur resulting in more mass layoffs, be sure to understand which job industries would be most and least affected by a recession.

Continued reading on employment industry trends for employers:

• Top 2023 Digital Marketing Trends & What Roles to Hire for Them
• How to Assess a Job Candidate’s Communication Skills, With Sample Questions
• What Is Backfilling? Reasons Why It’s Important & Necessary for Hiring Managers
• Why Employees Quit and How to Prevent It
• Mass Layoffs in 2022: What’s Next for Employees?
• Pay Transparency: What States Have It & Why It’s Important
• Take-Home Assignments: the Biggest Mistake for Hiring Managers