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Economy Continues Adding Jobs, Unemployment Rate Dips To 5.8 Percent

The October jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the economy continued to add jobs at a healthy clip.

Here are the two big numbers:

The economy added 214,000 jobs; less than the 248,000 produced in September, but just about the 200,000 needed to keep pushing down the unemployment rate.

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BLS

The unemployment rate, which is calculated using a survey, dipped to 5.8 percent.

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BLS

The AP adds:

"Along with the job gains, economic growth has accelerated this year. Yet despite the improvement, voters identified economic anxiety as their top concern in Tuesday's elections. That suggests the improvement hasn't yet been felt by many Americans.

"Nearly 60 percent of voters said they thought the economy was stagnating or worsening. Only one-third saw it as improving.

"The picture has still improved enough that the Federal Reserve announced last month that it was ending its bond purchase program, which had been intended to lower interest rates and stimulate economic growth."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.