The U.S. economy added jobs in October for the first time since last spring due to hiring in the private sector.

The private sector hired 159,000 employees last month. That is the tenth consecutive month of job gains for the nation’s businesses.  Since the start of the year, private sector employers have hired 1.1 million employees.

One day before the mid-term election and predictions are in. Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, looks ahead to election day and forecasts the after-effects of its results.

Voters head to the polls tomorrow, but non-political happenings continue apace: the Fed will meet to discuss what to do about interest rates and the economy. Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, doesn't see the interest rate increasing, but sees the Fed pumping more money into the economy, to try and jumpstart it.

Despite the recession, New York City balanced its budget and even eked out a $5 million surplus. It helped that the City put aside nearly $3 billion last year to offset expected budget gaps for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.

Higher sales taxes this year are not deterring shoppers in New York City. State comptroller Tom DiNapoli says sales tax collections increased 20.6 percent in the first nine months of the year compared to the same time a year ago. During the first nine months of 2009, sales tax collections fell 11.4 percent.

Sales of existing homes shot up in September, but are still below levels economists consider indicative of a healthy economy.

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing homes sold at an annual rate of 4.53 million in September.  That’s an increase of 10 percent from August but down more than 19 percent from a year ago. August sales were revised downward slightly.

We are just eight days away from election day, and Democrats and Republicans are campaigning at full throttle. First Lady Michelle Obama is on the West Coast, trying to win votes for Democrats in key Senate races in Washington and California.

New Jersey's unemployment rate fell below the national average in last month. The state's Department of Labor reports that 9.4 percent of New Jersey residents were unemployed last month, two-tenths of a percent lower than the national unemployment rate. 

A small slice of the disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's prized possessions will be sold at auction in New York this November.

Mid-term elections are just two weeks away, and a frenzy of campaigning from President Obama, First Lady Michelle, and the Tea Party express is about to get underway.

Takeaway managing producer, Noel King, and Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, explore what's ahead this week as we get close to election day.

Josh Zinner, co-director of NEDAP, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, and WNYC business and economics editor Charlie Herman reflect on the foreclosure freeze of many large banks nationwide and what that freeze is doing to the New York housing market.

On the heels of the announcement of a nationwide investigation by state Attorneys General of foreclosure proceedings, foreclosure filings in September increased by nearly 3 percent compared to August. Compared to a year ago, foreclosure filings were up 1 percent. And for the first time, a record 102,134 homes were seized by banks in September. 

The Attorneys General of New York and New Jersey have joined a coordinated investigation of improper foreclosures procedings that could have violated state laws.

Every Monday, we take a look at the big stories in the week ahead. This week's Agenda, covers foreclosures, midterm elections, calls for UN peace keepers in  Sudan and the Nobel Prize in Economics.

The U.S. economy continues to lose jobs as the government reports Friday morning that 95,000 positions were cut from the nation’s payrolls.

The U.S. economy continues to lose jobs as the government reports Friday morning that 95,000 positions were cut from the nation’s payrolls.

While private sector employers hired 64,000 jobs last month, the positive number was offset by the loss of 159,000 government jobs

Wells Fargo announced it will pay $24 million to eight states including New Jersey to end investigations into whether the company deceived homeowners when it offered them risky mortgages.

A copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln and owned by Robert Kennedy will be auctioned in New York. The copy Kennedy purchased is one of 48 signed by Lincoln and sold to raise money for the medical care of union veterans.

A copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln and owned by Robert Kennedy will be auctioned in New York. 

While the holidays are still a few months away, retailers in New York and across the country are hopeful that consumers will spend more this year. 

The National Retail Federation forecasts that holiday sales will increase more than 2 percent to just over $447 billion. While that is an improvement from last year’s small increase, it is still down from the record total set in 2007 before the recession began.

Despite falling rents and rising vacancy rates, the commercial real estate market could be improving.

According to the New York-based real estate firm REIS, even as the vacancy rate hit a 17-year high of 17.5 percent, the quarterly rate increase was slower compared to last year. And for the first time since 2008, the average rent on 4 billion square feet of office spaces was effectively unchanged from the previous quarter: rents fell one cent to $22.05 per square foot.