Puerto Rico October Employment Report is Mixed

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics released a mixed employment report for Puerto Rico on Friday.

On the plus side, in the bureau's household survey total employment was up 0.1% since September. This was the fourth consecutive month that employment had gone up on a month-to-month basis. In October it was up 2.4% from October 2015.

The unemployment rate jumped a whole percentage point in October to 12.4% from 11.4% in September. This was because the number of unemployed leaped by 9.3% in October from September.

October's unemployment rate was 1.5 percentage points lower than that found in October 2014.

To determine employment, in addition to its survey of households, the bureau releases a survey of workplaces. In its workplace survey, total employment was down 0.3% from September but up 0.5% from October 2014.

The workplace survey also showed private sector employment down by 0.2% since September but up 0.4% since October 2014. Unlike the bureau's household survey, the bureau's workplace survey does not include agricultural employment or self-employment.

All of this story's reported percentage changes are for seasonally adjusted data.

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