U.S. employers add 165,000 jobs in October as unemployment edges down to 4.1%

WASHINGTON (Nov. 6) — U.S. employers added far more jobs in October than economists expected, and the unemployment rate edged lower, in the first major labor-market reading since Democrats won control of Congress.

The Labor Department said nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That was well above the roughly 59,000 to 65,000 jobs Wall Street forecasters had projected, according to CNBC and the Associated Press. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.1% from 4.2% in September.

Hiring was led by professional and business services, which added 70,000 jobs, BLS said. Health care gained 42,000, transportation and warehousing 25,000, and manufacturing 19,000. Average hourly earnings rose 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00, a 3.1% increase over the past year. The average workweek held at 34.4 hours.

BLS also revised earlier data higher. August payroll gains were lifted by 53,000, to 186,000, and September by 31,000, to 60,000 — a combined 84,000 more jobs than previously reported. The agency said October's increase was well above the average monthly gain of 48,000 over the prior 12 months.

The household survey, which drives the unemployment rate, showed the labor force grew by 421,000 and employment by 463,000, BLS said. Labor force participation edged up to 61.9%. A broader underemployment measure that includes people working part time for economic reasons rose to 7.9%, CNBC reported, as the number of people working part time for economic reasons increased by 339,000 to 4.8 million.

The report landed a day after U.S. stocks posted their steepest slide since April 2025. By early Friday afternoon, the major indexes were higher as chip and other technology shares recovered part of Thursday's losses, Yahoo Finance reported.