OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:15 AM – Friday, November 6, 2026
The United States economy added 165,000 jobs in October, showing the job market may be stronger than many believed leading into this week's midterm elections.
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in October, while the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.1% from 4.2%
With about 7.1 million people unemployed in the U.S., the unemployment rate has remained in the 4.1% to 4.3% range since March. The rise in jobs, however, dwarfed September's increase of 60,000 jobs and came well ahead of the 65,000 new jobs economists expected in October.
In October, 1.6 million people who were not actively looking for work still wanted a job and had searched for one within the previous year. Of those, 448,000 were considered discouraged workers, meaning they believed no jobs were available to them. Both figures changed little from the previous month.
The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00 in the last month.
Employment continued to increase in the same sectors as it has in previous months: Professional and business services, health care and transportation and warehousing.
Professional and business-related jobs increased by 70,000 — above the average monthly gain of 15,000 in the past 12 months. This could be seen across technical services, administrative support, waste management and management of companies and enterprises.
Health care also added 42,000 jobs last month, which is higher than the average monthly addition of 31,000 in the last year. Gains occurred in hospitals (adding 16,000), home health care services (adding 11,000) and outpatient care centers.
Transportation and warehousing, including couriers and air transportation, added 25,000 and has steadily been rising, having gained 104,000 since a low in February.
Manufacturing also continued to trend up, seeing 19,000 additional jobs in the last month. This includes computer and electronic manufacturing (adding 7,000), machinery manufacturing (adding 4,000) and metal manufacturing (adding 4,000).
The average work week for nonfarm private employees remained at 34.4 hours. In manufacturing, the average hours were unchanged at 40.5 hours per week, though overtime rose by 0.1 hours to 3.1 hours, according to the BLS.
🔥 “The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported that employers added 165,000 jobs in October. That figure was well above the 65,000 estimate of economists polled by LSEG.”
— U.S. Department of Labor (@USDOL) November 6, 2026
Under @POTUS, jobs are pouring back into our country and this month’s jobs report is yet another… pic.twitter.com/jNzw5hM6oj
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