Companies added more workers than expected in October, according to the US Labor Department. The news is welcome, largely because the crowd was looking for a much-weaker gain. Good news, as far as it goes. But it's premature to celebrate. Indeed, as The Capital Spectator projected, the one-year trend continued to edge down, reaffirming that the labor market appears to be caught in a gradual but persistent downturn.
Private payrolls rose 1.5% in October vs. the year-ago level. That's a respectable increase, but the problem is that a clear downtrend remains in force. Indeed, the