But economists have high hopes that the streak of bad news will end with the October jobs report, which is due Friday morning.
But infections from the Delta variant, which were largely to blame for the slow hiring, are fading, giving economists hope that the job market can quickly recover again.
On Wednesday, the ADP Employment Report, which counts private payrolls in the United States, showed a healthy 571,000 jobs added in October.
As the economy reopened fully over the summer and consumer demand went through the roof, businesses stepped up their hiring efforts.
In August, a record 4.3 million workers quit their jobs, for example — proof of the leverage employees have in the pandemic economy.
Even though these conditions sound pretty promising for workers, nearly two-thirds of Americans view the economy as poor, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.