The U.S. economy, despite concerns over housing and credit, added 166,000 non-farm jobs in October, the largest growth since May, a report said Friday.

The unemployment rate was steady at 4.7 percent, the U.S. Labor Department said in a release. The payroll hike was up from September’s gain of 96,000 jobs.

The big push came in service-sector employment, figured at 190,000, biggest rise in five months. Jobs continued to be lost in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Some traders on Wall Street, however, question what they see as conflicting figures in the report. The Labor Department said its household survey, which includes the self-employed, showed employment dropping by 250,000 in October, after rising 463,000 in September.

Such wild and inconsistent swings in data cast a long shadow on the reliability of both surveys, said analyst Peter Morici, former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Morici predicts the economy will likely grow at 1.5 percent to 2 percent in the fourth quarter but could easily slip into a recession.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International





Publication date: 02 November 2007   

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