Job growth is continuing. From AP:

Companies created more net new jobs in October than in any month since April, evidence that businesses are shedding their previously cautious attitude toward hiring.

But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month.

Still, the job gains should give Americans a bit more income to spend, providing some support to the sluggish economy. That higher income, combined with the potential extension of the Bush tax cuts and the Federal Reserve’s move earlier this week to push interest rates down, could help the economy pick up steam, economists said.

The employment report showed much stronger job gains than Wall Street analysts had expected.