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Jobless rate ticks higher in October for white Americans, bucking the broader trend

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A jobseeker holds flyers during the New York Public Library’s annual Bronx Job Fair & Expo at the the Bronx Library Center in the Bronx borough of New York, US, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. 

Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The unemployment rate for white Americans inched higher in October, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor.

In October, white Americans saw their jobless rate rise to 3.8% from 3.6% in the month prior. This trend bucked the overall unemployment rate for the country, which held steady at 4.1% in October from September, as well as for the other demographic groups.

The jobless rates for Black and Hispanic workers were unchanged last month at 5.7% and 5.1%, respectively. Asian Americans saw their unemployment rate creep lower to 3.9% from 4.1%.

On the other hand, the jobless rates for both white men and women edged higher in October. For the men, it increased to 3.5% from 3.4%. For women, it rose to 3.3% from 3.1%.

While Hispanic women saw their jobless rate climb to 5.2% from 4.8%, unemployment rates for their male counterparts slid to 4.0% from 4.1%. The unemployment rate also ticked lower for Black women to 4.9% from 5.3%, while it climbed to 5.7% from 5.1% for Black men.

To Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, this jump indicates the distortion and volatility in month-to-month data, especially considering that the jobless rate for Black men dropped to 5.1% in September from 5.9% in August.

“I think that the big increase that we saw in Black male unemployment in October was really just renormalizing after the big, unusual drop in September,” she told CNBC.

Shierholz added that October’s unemployment numbers were also unusually affected by the hurricanes and labor strikes, making it even more difficult to compare these data points.

“You never want to focus on one month’s data, and that is more true than ever right now because this month’s data was so distorted by these unusual temporary factors,” she said.

In October, the overall labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population either employed or actively seeking work — ticked down to 62.6% in October from 62.7% in September.

Among white workers, the labor force participation rate also inched lower to 62.2% in October from 62.4% in the prior month, while it declined to 66.9% from 67.4% for Hispanic workers. Within Asian workers, the participation advanced to 65.5% in October from 65.3% in September, while it held steady for Black Americans at 62.9%.

— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.

Economics

Trump greenlights Nippon merger with US Steel

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A tugboat pushes a barge near the U.S. Steel Corp. Clairton Coke Works facility in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 9, 2024.

Justin Merriman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel will form a “partnership,” after the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to acquire its U.S. rival had been blocked on national security grounds.

“This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

U.S. Steel’s headquarters will remain in Pittsburgh and the bulk of the investment will take place over the next 14 months, the president said. U.S. Steel shares jumped more than 24%.

President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel from purchasing U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion in January, citing national security concerns. Biden said at the time that the acquisition would create a risk to supply chains that are critical for the U.S.

Trump, however, ordered a new review of the proposed acquisition in April, directing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to determine “whether further action in this matter may be appropriate.”

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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Economics

A court resurrects the United States Institute of Peace

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The night the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) was taken over, March 17th, staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) walked round its headquarters smoking cigars and drinking beers while they dismantled the signage and disabled the computer systems. The takeover of the USIP building in Washington, DC, earlier that afternoon was one of the more notable moments of President Donald Trump’s revolution in the capital, because the think-tank is not actually part of the executive branch. The Institute’s board and president, George Moose, a veteran diplomat, were summarily fired. He and other senior staff were ultimately forced out of the building at the behest of three different police agencies. Then a DOGE staffer handed over the keys to the building to the federal government.

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Economics

How much worse could America’s measles outbreak get?

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AMERICA’S MEASLES outbreak is alarming for several reasons. What began as a handful of cases in Texas in January has now surpassed 800 across several states, with many more cases probably going unreported. It is the worst outbreak in 30 years and has already killed three people. Other smaller outbreaks bring the total number of cases recorded in 2025 so far to over 1,000. But above all, public-health experts worry that the situation now is a sign of worse to come. Falling vaccination rates and cuts to public-health services could make such outbreaks more frequent and impossible to curb, eventually making measles endemic in the country again.

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