According to the ChicagoBusiness.com, during the partial government shutdown that lasted 16 days in October, there was an unexpected rise in new jobs – a total of 204,000 to be exact. However, the unemployment rate slightly rose from 7.3 percent to 7.2 percent the month before, in September. This was because the Labor Department counted federal workers as being unemployed.

Compared to the last two months, October had 60,000 more jobs employed. This fall is also showing promising figures, with 202,000 jobs added in between August and October, bringing the employment numbers up from 146,000 between May and July. October recorded the highest number of jobs added from private businesses since February, at 212,000 new jobs. There were some troubling figures in the report, showing that the percentage of employed Americans and those seeking work hit a new 35-year low.

Due to more promising figures showed in the fall report, the Federal Reserve is unexpectedly prompting to pull back on stimulus efforts sooner than intended.

As for the 800,000 government workers that were affected by the government shut down last month, the government’s survey counted them as employed, since they were still being paid during their time off. The amount of government jobs fell by 12,000 in October. Manufacturing jobs rose by 19,000 jobs, the most since February, and retailers added 44,000 new employees.