U.S. employers added 165,000 non-farm jobs in October, up from a gain of 60,000 in September, bringing monthly payroll growth above the previous month's pace, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% from 4.2% in September, a decline of 0.1 percentage point. October combined a larger increase in payrolls with a lower unemployment rate than the preceding month.
Average hourly earnings for all employees rose 3.1% over 12 months, with pay at $38 an hour. The annual change measures growth against a year earlier, rather than against the previous month.
The labor force participation rate, the share of the population working or looking for work, stood at 61.9% in October. That measure includes both people with jobs and unemployed people seeking work.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 200,000 in the week ended Nov. 7 from 191,000 the previous week, the Department of Labor said. The increase amounted to 9,000 claims.
The four-week average of initial claims was 195,250, putting the latest weekly count 4,750 above that average. The average combines four weekly readings, reducing the influence of changes in any single week.
Claims are weekly figures and cover a more recent period than the October employment report. The latest claims week ended in November, while the payroll, unemployment and participation readings describe the previous month.
October's payroll gain exceeded September's by 105,000 jobs. Employers added 225,000 jobs across the two months, with October accounting for nearly three-quarters of that combined increase.
Total non-farm payroll employment reached 159.3 million jobs. That figure measures the number of payroll jobs, while the monthly increase measures how much the total changed from September to October.
The earnings figures describe two different aspects of pay: the hourly dollar amount and its change over a year. The 3.1% increase is a comparison of hourly earnings, rather than a measure of employment growth.
Unemployment and participation also measure different things. The unemployment rate counts people without work who are seeking jobs as a share of the labor force, while participation measures how many people belong to that workforce.
Initial claims count applications for unemployment benefits, rather than all unemployed people. Their weekly frequency provides a later reading alongside the monthly figures, but the claims count and unemployment rate use different measures and cover different periods.
