U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said Nov. 6, and average hourly pay for private-sector workers rose 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, little changed, covering 7.1 million people. Revisions to the two prior months added 84,000 jobs to what had been reported.
For most households the number that matters most is pay against prices. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings are up 3.1%, according to the BLS employment report. The consumer price index for September, the latest available, showed prices up 3.7% over the year, so a paycheck that grew with the average still bought less than it did a year earlier.
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Where did the 165,000 new jobs come from?
Hiring was concentrated in a few industries. Professional and business services added 70,000 jobs and health care 42,000, the BLS says, with transportation and warehousing up 25,000 and manufacturing up 19,000. The agency reported no industry with a significant loss, and said employment changed little in construction, retail trade, government, and leisure and hospitality.
Those two largest gainers, professional and business services and health care, account for 112,000 of the 165,000 new jobs, or about two-thirds of the total. Adding transportation and warehousing and manufacturing, the four named industries account for 156,000 jobs, about 95% of the gain. The BLS release does not break out jobs by age, so the report cannot say who filled them.
The BLS industry table splits the gain into 159,000 private-sector jobs and a federal government change of negative 1,000. The October gain is far above the 48,000-a-month average of the prior 12 months, which shows how thin hiring had been before this report.
The revisions changed the recent trend. August payrolls were revised up by 53,000, from 133,000 to 186,000, and September’s by 31,000, from 29,000 to 60,000. September’s figure is now roughly double its first estimate.
Revisions are routine, because the BLS collects more survey responses after the first release. Taking the revised August and September figures with October’s 165,000 puts the three-month total at 411,000 jobs, an average of 137,000 a month, against the 48,000-a-month pace of the prior 12 months. The labor market looks steadier than the single weak September reading suggested. October’s number is preliminary too, and the agency will revise it when the November report arrives.
What does 14 cents an hour amount to?
The BLS says the average private-sector workweek held at 34.4 hours. At that length, a 14-cent raise comes to about $4.82 more a week before taxes. For production and nonsupervisory employees, hourly pay rose 12 cents, or 0.4%, to $32.75, and their average week shortened by one-tenth of an hour to 33.8 hours.
Measured over a year, a 3.1% gain means the average private-sector hour paid about $36.86 in October 2025, roughly $1.14 less than it does now. That is a modest month-to-month gain and a slower year-over-year pace than inflation, which is why wage growth alone has not lifted buying power. Average hourly earnings are a snapshot across all private jobs, and individual raises vary widely.
How many people are still looking for work?
About 2.0 million people had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, the BLS says, which is 27.6% of all unemployed people. The agency’s count of the unemployed is a measure of people actively seeking work, so it does not include those who have stopped looking. The agency’s count of the unemployed, 7.1 million, was little changed in October, as was the unemployment rate.
The labor force participation rate was 61.9% and the share of adults with a job, the employment-population ratio, was 59.3%. Both changed little in October, the BLS says. A payroll gain of 165,000 is therefore not pulling large numbers of new people into the job market, and the unemployment rate held steady rather than falling.
The payroll figure counts jobs on employer payrolls, not people, so it is best read as a measure of employer demand rather than a count of households that found work. The separate household survey is the source of the unemployment rate, the participation rate and the long-term unemployed count, which is why the two sets of numbers can tell slightly different stories in the same month.
What does the Fed make of the labor market?
The Federal Reserve will weigh this report before its next meeting on Dec. 8-9. Its Oct. 28 statement described economic activity as expanding at a strong pace, said job gains have kept pace with the growth of the workforce and that inflation remains elevated. That meeting ended in a 10-2 vote to hold rates at 3-3/4 to 4 percent, with two members preferring an increase.
The BLS will release the November employment report on Friday, Dec. 4, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, five days before the Fed decides. Until then, the October data is the newest word on whether employers are still hiring and whether pay is keeping up. Households deciding where to keep cash, or whether to lock in a rate, are making that call with the same numbers the Fed is looking at.
Is pay growth of 3.1% keeping up with your savings?
A raise that trails inflation shrinks the value of every dollar sitting in a low-yield account, too. With wages up 3.1% and prices up 3.7% over the past year, cash that earns little loses ground twice.
Make Your Savings Pay You is an 11-page guide that covers I bonds whose rate adjusts with inflation every six months and Treasury bills from $100, free of state and local income tax. It also explains how to keep every dollar insured and includes a cash map worksheet for seeing what your cash earns now.
Get the I bond and Treasury bill guide for pay that trails prices →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
