US jobs growth slows sharply as election looms

Jobs growth in the US slowed sharply in October as hurricanes and strikes disrupted the economy.

Employers added 12,000 jobs last month, much lower than the 223,000 created in September, according to the Labor Department.

But while hiring slowed, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%.

The closely watched figures, which give an indication about the strength of the US economy, are the last to be released before Americans head to the polls on Tuesday to elect the country's next president.

The Labor Department said healthcare and government roles continued their rising trend last month, but fewer new manufacturing jobs were added due to strikes.

Some 30,000 workers at aerospace giant Boeing have been on strike since 13 September, leading to a dramatic slowdown in the production of aircraft. Workers at Textron, another aircraft company, have also been taking industrial action.

Manufacturing employment decreased by 46,000 in October, which the department said reflected "a decline of 44,000 in transportation equipment manufacturing that was largely due to strike activity".

Employment showed little or no change over the month in other major industries.

The 12,000 jobs added to payrolls is much lower than expected. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 113,000.

But workers staging walkouts were not included in last month's jobs data, which contributed to the overall non-farm payrolls being lower.

"At face value the 12k increase is obviously a weak number but it follows a very robust increase in September and was affected by strikes and possibly by the hurricanes," said Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings.

Hurricane Helene devastated the south east of the US in late September, with Hurricane Milton hitting Florida a week later. A total of 512,000 people said they could not go to work because of extreme weather.

Despite the greater-than-expected slowdown, expectations remain that interest rates will be cut by 0.25 percentage points next week by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve.

"Markets can likely park the October jobs report to the side. Quite clearly, the hurricane has taken a heavy toll on the numbers, clouding the picture of labour market strength, and so should not impact the Fed’s policy rate path," said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.

Lindsay Rosner from Goldman Sachs Asset Management added: "Stormy numbers but sky clearing for November 25 bp [base point] cut."

The Labor Department said it was likely the lower-than-expected jobs added were affected by the hurricanes because its survey is not designed to "isolate effects from extreme weather events", adding it was difficult to quantify the full impact.

Over the past year, job growth has also slowed and the unemployment rate has been edging higher, though it remains at historically low levels. Average hourly earnings have increased 4% in the last 12 months.

Last month the US Fed cut interest rates by a bigger-than-usual 0.5 percentage points, saying it wanted to avoid any further weakening in the labour market.