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DS News Webcast: Monday 11/9/2014

Job growth fell short of forecasts in October, but other employment indicators showed modest improvements for the labor market. U.S. employers added 214,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists had expected payrolls would increase by 240,000, a slight decline from September's preliminary estimate of 248,000 new jobs added. As of the end of October, BLS estimates the national unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, down from 5.9 percent to a new six-year low.

The drop in the unemployment rate came in the same month that policymakers at the Federal Reserve made the decision to end the central bank's bond purchasing program that began more than two years ago. Among the nearly nine million Americans counted as unemployed in the government's survey, an estimated 2.9 million were jobless for more than 27 weeks, down slightly from September. Over the past year, BLS says the number of long-term unemployed has dropped off by 1.1 million.

Despite growing economic confidence, Americans' housing sentiment remained mixed in October, according to survey findings from Fannie Mae. Forty percent of American consumers polled in Fannie Mae's latest National Housing Survey said they believe the economy is on the right track at the moment, up 13 percentage points over the past year. Housing attitudes were decidedly more mixed, however. Americans surveyed last month expect home prices to rise 2.8 percent over the next year while the share of those anticipating price gains slipped a percentage point to 44 percent.

About Author: Jordan Funderburk

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