MADISON, Wis.—Following the release of today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows 531,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in October nationwide, exceeding the BLS’ estimate by 81,000, Opportunity Wisconsin program director Meghan Roh issued the following statement:
“The employment data released today is a strong affirmation that the Biden-Harris agenda and the American Rescue Plan—which have put shots in the arms of nearly 200 million Americans, delivered relief to small businesses, and allowed us to safely reopen our economy—are working.
“We are grateful to the elected officials who have championed our recovery, and we look forward to continuing on this positive trajectory by delivering on the Build Back Better package and bipartisan infrastructure deal, both of which will create even more jobs and allow us to emerge out of the pandemic stronger than before.
“We are calling on Senator Ron Johnson to stop standing in the way of relief, obstructing both bills currently in Congress, advocating for sending American jobs overseas, and threatening the job growth that we’re currently seeing.“
In February of this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the U.S. would reach 4.6% unemployment by the end of 2023. The next month, Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, and today’s jobs report revealed that we beat the CBO estimate by over two years. Highlights from the jobs report include:
- 531,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in October, exceeding the BLS’ estimate by 81,000 and the marking the highest rate of job growth since July
- The 4.6% unemployment rate is a new pandemic low
- 164,000 jobs were added to the leisure and hospitality industry as businesses have reopened and Americans are safely traveling again
- Wages increased by 0.4% from last month and 4.9% from this time last year
- Today’s report also included upward revisions of jobs numbers from August and September, showing that we are on a strong road to recovery that will only be bolstered by passage of the Build Back Better and bipartisan infrastructure packages.
