October job reports show Missouri's unemployment rate is still below the national average. It remains at 6.9% in the month of October.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development announced Tuesday Missouri is one full percentage point below the national unemployment average.
John Foeger is the spokesman for the department.
"Our unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.9 percent, which means that our unemployment rate has now been lower than the national unemployment rate for 38 straight months,” Foeger said.
Foeger also says there were 13,000 new jobs created this past month alone.
"The state has now added approximately 47,000 new jobs in 2011 and 2012, to date combined,” Foeger said.
Foeger says overall, there are not only new jobs being created, but also an increase of nearly 12,000 Missourians returning to the labor force.