Hiring tops forecasts in October
November 6, 2026 · 10:00 p.m. Central / 11:00 p.m. Eastern
U.S. employers added 165,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in October and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1% from 4.2% in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The monthly gain easily exceeded consensus economist projections of roughly 65,000 jobs, according to The Washington Post and CBS News. The agency also revised prior estimates upward by a combined 84,000 jobs across August and September.
Monthly payroll figures are based on surveys of employers and households and are subject to routine revisions in subsequent reports as additional payroll records arrive.
Where jobs grew and what was revised
Professional and business services led October’s hiring with 70,000 additional jobs, alongside continued gains in health care, social assistance, and transportation and warehousing, according to the BLS report and The Independent.
In its two-month revision, the Bureau of Labor Statistics raised August’s job growth total to 186,000 and adjusted September’s figure up to 60,000. Together, those updates indicate that late-summer hiring was firmer than initial preliminary estimates suggested.
A single month’s payroll beat does not mean all households experienced the same conditions. Economists noted that while headline hiring and the 4.1% jobless rate point to a resilient labor market, elevated living and borrowing costs remained a central voter concern in this week’s midterm elections.
