The Quikrete Industry Dashboard

The latest major metric to be updated on the Quikrete Industry Dashboard is the unemployment rate.

Job growth essentially slowed down in October with just 150,000 nonfarm payroll jobs added to the U.S. economy, according to the latest Employment Situation Report released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Unemployment also inched upward to a rate of 3.9% compared to 3.8% in September.

Construction employment showed gains in October while adding 23,000 jobs, which is in line with the average monthly gain of 18,000 over the prior 12 months, the BLS said. Employment continued to trend up over the month in specialty trade contractors (+14,000) and construction of buildings (+6,000).

Wholesale and retail jobs showed little change compared to the prior month while warehousing and transportation fell by 12,000 jobs in October.

At the gas pumps, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline as of Nov. 3 fell to just under $3.44 per gallon. 

One month ago, the average price stood at $3.798, nearly identical to a price of $3.778 on Nov. 3, 2022.