October saw first fall in employment rate since the recovery began

What is significant is that the process of recovery of jobs that was robust during May, June, July and which slowed down in August and September now has reversed into a fall in employment in October

By mid-October, fast-frequency indicators had signalled stagnation or a worsening of the labour markets in the month. We had reported on October 19 that the three key labour market ratios — labour force participation rate, unemployment rate and employment rate — had shown a slightly worsening trend until the third week ending in October. All the three ratios till then were a shade worse than their respective levels in September.

The fourth week that ended in October turned out to be better. Labour participation rate increased smartly and although the unemployment rate went up, it wasn’t high enough to stop