Economy lost 9,100 jobs in October

• RPLS shows the economy lost 9,100 jobs in October. Amid the slowing labor market, the Education and health services sector showed relative strength and added jobs, while the Government sector saw the largest decreases in employment. Meanwhile, there is an uptick in the number of employees notified with layoffs in WARN notices.

• Hiring and attrition rates continued their downward path (we started releasing non-smoothed monthly hiring and attrition rates!). Job postings were also down 1.9% month-over-month.

• Salaries from new job postings ticked up in October, showing a 0.7% month-over-month increase. The increase was mostly driven by Transportation and Health occupations.

Employment

Revelio Labs Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) is back with another release amid the ongoing government shutdown and closure of the BLS. Our data shows that the US economy lost 9,100 jobs in October. It confirms that the Fed made the right call last week and may want to cut rates in December, too.

The decline in employment is driven primarily by a large decline in employment in the Government sector, which lost 22,200 jobs in October; and the Retail sector, which lost 8,500 jobs. On the other hand, the Education and health services sector continued to show relative strength, adding 22,000 jobs in October.

Layoff notices

We also observe an increase in the number of employees notified with layoffs as part of the WARN layoff notices. The number of layoff notices increased by 60% in October (from 326 in September to 521 in October). The number of employees notified with layoffs increased from 31,700 employees in September to 43,600 in October, a 37% increase month-over-month.

Hiring & attrition

In addition to the slowdown in net job creation, we note the continued downtrend in labor market dynamism, as both hiring and attrition rates continue to slow. In October, the annualized hiring rate was just 24.8%, down from above 30% during the 2021-22 hiring boom period. The labor market is tough for those looking for a job currently, especially among new entrants, as we have highlighted in recent research.

Job postings

Looking ahead, the outlook for job seekers remains grim. Active job postings continue to decline. In particular, we see declines in Professional and business services, Education and health services and the Construction sector: Sectors that had contributed to job gains in recent months. Transportation and warehousing was the only sector to see a meaningful increase in demand in October.

Salaries from new job openings

Salaries from new job postings ticked up slightly in October, by 0.7% compared to September 2025. The occupations driving the increase in salaries this month are transportation related, specifically salaries for truck drivers. Salaries in new job postings for health related jobs like medical providers also rose in October.