A heavy week of data kept intact the U.S. Federal Reserve’s central view of an economy where price pressures continue to ease and the labor market continues to flex but not break amid ongoing economic growth.

Employment data for October was among the weakest of recent reports, with previous months revised lower and just 12,000 jobs added.

The numbers were likely skewed by strikes, bad weather and a particularly low response rate to Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys. But on its own, the October report pushed the three-month average of job gains to a pandemic-era low, which is close to the pace Federal Reserve officials believe is needed to keep up with population growth.

Other details of the report appear to confirm weaker employment conditions, including a drop in the number of people who found a job, either unemployed or not in the labor force in the previous month.

However, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent and average hourly earnings rose at a 4 percent annual rate, both signs of what Fed officials hope is a labor market that has returned to a normal balance that can be sustained.

“Despite the weak number in the headline, today’s report should not yet raise alarm bells for job seekers, workers or policy makers… For now, a soft landing is still on the table,” he wrote Cory Stahle, economist at Indeed, the Hiring Lab, in an analysis of the October hiring numbers.

The Fed meets on November 6-7, with the session postponed by a day for Tuesday’s presidential election. US central bankers are expected to cut the benchmark policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%.

Other data from the Fed’s September meeting was largely in line with what policymakers said they expected.
Inflation data released Thursday showed that the price index for personal consumption expenditures rose at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in September, close to the Fed’s 2 percent target for that index.

A similar measure, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is considered a better gauge of underlying inflation, has been stuck for three months at a higher 2.7 percent.

But even with quarter-point rate cuts expected in November and at the Fed’s December meeting, monetary policy will still be seen as tight at a time when many Fed officials feel their fight against inflation is nearing completion and economic risks shift to the labor market.

Meanwhile, growth remains strong and consumers continue to spend. September retail sales were stronger than expected.

An initial third-quarter gross domestic product report estimated the economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, above what Fed officials consider a sustainable long-term trend.