Welcome to a double-digit world. The US unemployment rate leapt past the much-anticipated threshold, rising to 10.2 per cent in October from 9.8 per cent the previous month. The fall in non-farm payrolls, at 190,000, was close to that expected, and came with welcome, positive revisions to past months’ losses. But in the separate survey of households another large drop in employment outpaced a fall in the numbers choosing to stop looking for work, propelling the headline unemployment rate skyward.

Those hunting for signs of a recovery, however, were offered some succour. Temporary employment, which typically starts to rise ahead of permanent hiring, increased by 34,000, having lost an average of 44,000 jobs a month from January 2008 to this July. While average hours worked were flat, hours and overtime improved in manufacturing. The sector is still shedding jobs, but this is consistent with better demand for factories’ final products. Hourly earnings, too, rose by more than expected.