U.S. Employers Added 165,000 Jobs in October; Manufacturing Payrolls Rise

U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in October, far more than economists had expected, while manufacturing payrolls rose by 19,000 and prior months were revised higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Employment Situation report released Friday.

The October gain topped the roughly 55,000 to 65,000 increase economists had projected in forecasts cited before the release. BLS said the unemployment rate “changed little” at 4.1% in October, with 7.1 million people unemployed. The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of people working or looking for work, was 61.9%. Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm employees rose 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00, up 3.1% from a year earlier. The average workweek was unchanged at 34.4 hours.

Hiring was led by professional and business services, which added 70,000 jobs. Health care and social assistance added a combined 55,100, and transportation and warehousing added 25,000. Manufacturing also posted a solid gain, with BLS saying factory employment “continued to trend up” in October. Nonfarm payroll employment is based on a survey of employers and is the government’s main monthly measure of job growth.

Within manufacturing, durable goods producers added 25,000 jobs, while nondurable goods makers lost 6,000. The biggest gains came in computer and electronic products, up 7,000; machinery, up 4,000; and primary metals, also up 4,000. BLS said manufacturing employment is now up 101,000 since its low point in December 2025.

Still, the report showed some softer undercurrents beneath the stronger headline payroll number. The number of people working part time for economic reasons — meaning they would have preferred full-time work but had their hours cut or could not find full-time jobs — rose by 339,000 in October to 4.8 million. That increase can signal some cooling in labor demand even when overall payroll growth remains positive.

The report also materially changed the recent hiring picture through revisions. August payroll growth was revised up by 53,000 to 186,000, and September was revised up by 31,000 to 60,000, for a combined upward revision of 84,000. BLS said October’s 165,000 increase was above the average monthly gain of 48,000 over the previous 12 months.

Manufacturing’s showing is likely to draw attention because factory hiring has been a weaker part of the labor market in many recent months. But the authoritative figures in Friday’s report came from BLS, the federal agency that compiles the monthly jobs snapshot, not from outside industry groups reacting to the data.

Taken together, the October report pointed to a labor market that added jobs at a faster pace than expected and looked stronger than previously reported in late summer, even as the jump in involuntary part-time work suggested not all measures of employment improved at the same rate.