WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The overall U.S. trade deficit widened in October to 63.1 billion U.S. dollars, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday.
U.S. exports rose by 2.2 percent to 182 billion dollars in October while imports increased by 2.1 percent to 245.1 billion dollars, according to the department.
"Exports and imports in October reflect both the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued recovery from the sharp declines earlier this year," the department said.
The overall trade deficit in October rose by 1.7 percent from a revised 62.1 billion dollars in September. Year-to-date, the trade deficit rose 9.5 percent from the same period in 2019, according to the department.
"Export growth was broad-based and indicated that global growth and trade have continued to come back online despite rising virus case counts," Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery, economists at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote Friday in a note.
"Exports, however, have a decent way to go in terms of a full rebound, remaining about 13 percent off their pre-virus February level," they wrote, adding imports, boosted by strong domestic demand, are now less than 1 percent off the pre-pandemic level.
The trade data came as U.S. labor market recovery is losing momentum due to a surge of new COVID-19 cases across the country in recent weeks.
U.S. employers added 245,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 6.7 percent amid a slowing labor market recovery, the Labor Department reported earlier Friday. Enditem
