From the LA Times:
The nation’s economy continued to grow sluggishly in October, adding just 80,000 jobs as concerns about the future weighed on employers and consumers, curtailing both hiring and spending.
The unemployment rate dipped slightly, to 9.0% from 9.1% the month before, and the government revised upwards employment figures from both August and September. But the economy still isn’t creating the 125,000 jobs a month economists say are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.
“Employers are riding a turtle when we were hoping they’d get on a Thoroughbred,” said Patrick O’Keefe, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Labor who is now director of economic research at accounting firm J.H. Cohn.
