A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Rising prices and paychecks that are not keeping pace made for a combustible combination this week in the midterm elections.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Voters took out their frustrations at the ballot box. Thursday, there was a similar rout in the stock market.
MARTÍNEZ: We're going to talk through all of that with NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott - so let's start with the job market, Scott. We got an update from the Labor Department this morning, and it's fresh. So what does it show?
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Yeah. It shows that hiring picked up in October. Employers added 165,000 jobs last month, which is a lot more than forecasters expected. Job gains for August and September were also revised up. Hospitals, factories and transportation companies all added jobs last month, while restaurants and construction companies shed workers. The unemployment rate inched down just a bit to 4.1%. And so long as the unemployment rate remains low like that, the Federal Reserve is able to focus its attention on fighting inflation.
MARTÍNEZ: Ooh. Inflation. All right. So what's happening with inflation?
HORSLEY: It remains stubbornly high, which is a big reason for the outpouring we saw in this week's election. We did see a modest uptick in wage growth last month. Average wages in October were up 3.1%, which is a slightly bigger annual increase than the previous month. But Cory Stahle, who's an economist with the Indeed job-search company, says it's still probably not enough to keep pace with rising prices.
CORY STAHLE: Which is really frustrating at a time where gas prices are higher. Grocery prices are still high for many people. These workers are losing ground right now. The longer it wears on, the more and more they're going to feel that.
HORSLEY: Oftentimes the best way for workers to boost their pay is by switching jobs or at least acting like they might switch, so employers pony up more. So it is encouraging to see a little more turnover in the job market, but we've still got a ways to go before workers start to see any real increase in their buying power.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. The stock market, Scott. Help us understand...
HORSLEY: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...What's going on with the stock market.
HORSLEY: It's been a rocky ride. Stocks soared on Wednesday as investors began to digest the results of this week's election. But by Thursday, digestion had turned to indigestion. There was a big sell-off that erased the previous day's gains and then some. The downturn started with computer chipmakers, but it didn't stop there. You know, investors have been questioning whether the artificial intelligence boom has been overblown and needs to be scaled back. Those doubts were amplified when voters across the country showed they want more restrictions on data centers. Now, early trading this morning has shown a bit of a rebound in the tech-heavy NASDAQ stock index. But, you know, investors are still jittery.
MARTÍNEZ: What about the rest of the stock market?
HORSLEY: Well, it wasn't just tech stocks that took a beating yesterday. All the major indexes fell at least 3%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ ended in correction territory, down more than 10% from its recent high. As I check the board right now, it's regained a little less than 2% of that, but the Dow has fallen further. One silver lining is that mortgage rates have inched down just a little bit, although they're still high - north of 7% for the average 30-year home loan. High mortgage rates have been a real drag on the housing market. Construction companies have been able to stay busy with those data-center projects. But as we said, there was a small drop in construction jobs last month.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, thanks for bringing us the new numbers.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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