expenditures inflation - which excludes food and energy priceshas moved sideways at around 2. 7 percent since may, and the latest consumer and producer price index reports point to a similarly elevated or even higher reading for october. the persistently high core inflation largely reflects pressures on housing services prices, perhaps due to an increase in demand for affordable housing and an inelastic supply. gross domestic product ( gdp ) increased at a solid pace in the third quarter, maintaining the momentum from the previous four quarters. growth continued to be driven by private domestic final purchases, as personal consumption, and retail sales in particular, strongly increased last quarter, more than offsetting further weakness in housing activity due to high mortgage rates. retail sales continued to rise in october, even though hurricanes helene and milton may have exerted a small drag on sales last month. the annual revision of the national income and product accounts confirmed that gdp has been providing the right signal about the ongoing strength in economic activity, as gross domestic income and personal income were revised up considerably for 2023 and the first half of this year. the october employment report seems to have been affected by the recent hurricanes and the boeing strike. it also featured the lowest response rate to the payroll survey in decades. after accounting for these special factors, it seems that payroll employment continued to increase in october at a pace close to the average monthly gain seen in the second and third quarters. the unemployment rate remained low at 4. 1 percent in october, down from 4. 3 percent in july. the labor force participation rate remains well below pre - pandemic levels and edged down further in october due to lower prime - age participation. while unemployment is notably higher than a year ago, it is still at a historically low level and below my and the congressional budget office's estimates of full employment. the labor market has loosened from the extremely tight conditions of the past few years. the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed workers has been close to the 3 / 9 bis - central bankers'speeches historically elevated pre - pandemic level in recent months. but there are still more available jobs than available workers, a condition that before 2018 has only occurred twice for a prolonged period since world war ii, further signaling ongoing labor market strength. wage growth has slowed further in recent months, but it continues to indicate a tight labor market. the rise in the unemployment rate this year largely reflects weaker hiring, as job seekers entering or re - entering the labor force are taking longer to find

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