Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 59,000 new jobs being created in the United States in October. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals far exceeded those expectations.

All told, the economy added 165,000 jobs in October, and the overall unemployment rate inched lower, falling from 4.2% to 4.1%. Adding to the good news, job totals from August and September were also revised up by a combined 84,000 jobs.

The news wasn’t entirely encouraging — the BLS report showed more subdued wage growth, which is a problem for consumers trying to keep pace with rising inflation — but overall, this is one of the more promising monthly job reports of the year.

As for the larger context, 10 months into 2026, the U.S. economy has created 861,000 jobs so far this year — a monthly average of roughly 86,000 — which is a deeply underwhelming total that plainly contradicts the White House’s routinely happy talk about current conditions.

All told, the U.S. economy has added 977,000 jobs over Trump’s 22-month second term. Over the previous 22 months, the economy added nearly 3.25 million jobs. To date, the White House hasn’t even tried to explain why the domestic job market worsened after the Republican president took office.

To contextualize the data, I put together this chart to show month-to-month totals since the 2020 election. The blue columns point to Joe Biden’s presidency, while the red columns point to Trump’s.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Job market showed signs of life in October, in an otherwise disappointing year appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: Source Author

From MS Now.