According to a Reuters feature article, private sector employers in the US hired the least number of workers for the past six months. This suggested the economy still needed motivation from the Federal Reserve. The sluggish growth in private job employment reportedly indicated that the labor market was still affected by the 16-day shutdown of the US government.

On Wednesday after a two-day meeting, officials of the Federal Reserve stuck to the bond-buying pace of USD85 billion. Fed officials also claimed the fiscal policy restrained growth of economy.

New York-based BNP Paribas economist Laura Rosner said about the Fed's statement, "It (data) suggests accommodative policy might be necessary for longer and more aggressive monetary policy might be needed to break the lack of momentum in the economy."

The ADP National Employment Records showed that the private sector employers had an additional of 130,000 new jobs to this months' payroll. However, compared to the month of April, this counted as the lowest reading and ranked below expectations of economists. The data of the ADP also showed that growth for private jobs has slowed for four months straight. In September, medium-sized firms had hired a lesser number of workers.

West Chester-based Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said, "The government shutdown and debt limit brinkmanship hurt the already softening job market in October."