Photo: U.S. Department of Labor / Shawn Moore / CC BY 2.0
U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in October, well above expectations – economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast 59,000, while a Reuters poll put the consensus at 65,000, and the unemployment rate slipped to 4.1% from 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
The gain was more than triple the average monthly increase of 48,000 over the prior 12 months. The bureau also revised August’s gain up by 53,000, to 186,000, and September’s up by 31,000, to 60,000 – a combined 84,000 more jobs than previously reported.
Professional and business services led October’s hiring with 70,000 jobs, far above its 15,000 average monthly gain over the prior year. Health care added 42,000 jobs, above its 31,000 average monthly gain over the prior year, and transportation and warehousing added 25,000, led by couriers and messengers (+17,000). Manufacturing employment trended up, adding 19,000, with gains in computer and electronic products, machinery and primary metals, while construction, retail, information, leisure and hospitality, and government showed little change.
Average hourly earnings rose 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00 in October and are up 3.1% over the past 12 months. The labor force participation rate ticked up to 61.9% from 61.8%. The number of people working part time for economic reasons rose by 339,000 to 4.8 million, and long-term unemployment held at 2.0 million, or 27.6% of all unemployed people.
The report lands a day after Wall Street’s worst selloff since April 2025, when AI and semiconductor shares dragged the Nasdaq down 5.5%. Stock futures had pointed to a partial rebound ahead of the data; read JBizNews’s market wrap here.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
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