The October employment report is out, and it's ... eh. The economy added a total of 80,000 jobs last month (104,000 in the private sector and -24,000 in the public sector), which is less than economists expected. On the bright-ish side, though, the Labor Department says that 102,000 more jobs were created in August and September than initially estimated. (It's possible that the government may be underestimating the October numbers as well, one economist tells the Times.) Also, the unemployment rate was nudged down from 9.1 percent to 9 percent. But, basically, the recovery continues to proceed very slowly, and might not reach the finish line for a long, long time. It's like a baby crawling its way through a marathon, stopping every so often to take a nap.

Report Shows a Mere 80,000 Jobs Added in U.S. in October [NYT]
Jobs report hints at some improvement [Reuters]