Labor
Nonfarm Payrolls — October 2026
Released November 6, 2026 · 8:30 AM ET · Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The read · narrated
The read
If you’re looking for work, the headline isn’t your number. October added a hundred sixty-five thousand jobs. Your number is how long the search takes. It just hit its longest since twenty twenty-one.
The strong case first. It’s real. August and September were revised up eighty-four thousand, and the three-month average jumped to a hundred thirty-seven thousand a month, from twenty-eight.
Last month we showed the summer revised to fifty-one thousand a month. It’s back to sixty-nine.
Who hired: business services, health care, delivery and factories. Professional and technical work, among the best-paying jobs, added thirty-three thousand; temp help, nineteen. And over the year, information and finance, both well-paid, are down more than two hundred thousand.
The typical stretch of unemployment is almost twelve weeks, up from ten last fall. More than one in four unemployed people have been looking for over six months. Both are the highest since twenty twenty-one.
People stuck part-time who want full-time work jumped three hundred thirty-nine thousand. It’s a noisy series, so read the year: up about a quarter million.
The steady part: among twenty-five to fifty-four year-olds, the share working or looking is level with a year ago, and above twenty nineteen.
One more trend. Over the past year, women took nearly seven in ten new jobs, and they’ve held over half of all payroll jobs for nine straight months. More than eight in ten of their gains came from health care and social assistance.
It isn’t new. In five months since December, men’s jobs were down over the year while total jobs grew. That’s happened in ten earlier stretches since nineteen sixty-four. Some came as recessions took hold: nineteen ninety, two thousand one, two thousand seven. Others came in recoveries, like nineteen ninety-two. It tells you which sectors are hiring, not what comes next.
So, strong or stable? Adding jobs: stronger. Absorbing the unemployed: not yet. For the Fed, firmer hiring takes away a reason to ease. Pay rose three point one percent. September was revised up, so last month’s third slowdown is gone. Still no pressure to tighten. The two-year rose five basis points on the day.
Watch how long the search takes. November’s report lands December fourth, five days before the Fed decides.
| Measure | Latest | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Payrolls | +165,000 · October | ▲ Aug–Sep revised up 84,000; 3-month average 137,000 |
| Median job search | 11.9 weeks · October | ▲ longest since 2021; 27.6% looking over six months |
The Employment Situation for October 2026, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released November 6, 2026. All figures are seasonally adjusted and come from the BLS public data API; each headline series was checked against its FRED mirror. The print. Total nonfarm payrolls rose 165,000 (series CES0000000001). August was revised from +133,000 to +186,000 and September from +29,000 to +60,000, a combined 84,000 higher; our October 2 read had carried them at +133,000 and +29,000. Monthly changes in the current vintage: May +63,000, June +31,000, July −10,000, August +186,000, September +60,000, October +165,000. August through October average 137,000 a month; May through July, 28,000. The summer we showed you. June, July and August averaged 71,300 a month as published on September 4 and 51,300 as published on October 2; in the current vintage they average 69,000. Sectors. In October, professional and business services +70,000, including professional, scientific and technical services +32,900 (CES6054000001) and temporary help services +18,600 (CES6056132001); health care +41,600 (CES6562000101); transportation and warehousing +24,800, including couriers and messengers +17,400 (CES4349200001); manufacturing +19,000; leisure and hospitality −13,000. Over the twelve months to October: health care +376,600, social assistance +142,200, professional, scientific and technical services +127,200, construction +124,000, financial activities −99,000, information −119,000. Average hourly earnings in September, the latest month available for the professional, scientific and technical industry: professional, scientific and technical services $56.34, information $55.96, financial activities $49.67, against $37.86 for all private employees. The search. Median duration of unemployment 11.9 weeks, from 11.5 in September and 10.1 in September 2025 (LNS13008276); the share of the unemployed out of work 27 weeks or longer 27.6% (LNS13025703). Both are the highest since 2021. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, from 4.2%. Part-time for economic reasons. 4.84 million, up 339,000 on the month and 246,000 from September 2025 (LNS12032194); this series is volatile month to month. Participation. Ages 25–54: 83.7%, the same as in September 2025 and above the 2019 average of 82.5% (LNS11300060). All ages: 61.9%. The household survey and October 2025. The Current Population Survey was not collected for October 2025, so every year-earlier household comparison on this page uses September 2025, and the household charts in the video begin in November 2025. Women and men. From the payroll survey (women employees, CES0000000010): over the twelve months to October, women gained 608,000 of 885,000 total payroll jobs (68.7%), men 277,000. Women have held more than half of all payroll jobs in each month from February through October 2026. Health care (+274,500) and social assistance (+109,100) supplied 85.8% of women’s 447,000 twelve-month gain to September, the latest month of industry detail by sex. The household survey’s by-sex figures are not used for year comparisons because they cross January’s population-control adjustment. The precedent. We counted months since 1964 in which men’s payroll jobs (total nonfarm less women employees) were lower than a year earlier while total payrolls were higher. Runs of such months no more than six months apart are counted as one stretch. Before the current one (five months between December 2025 and July 2026), there were ten: 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980–81, 1983, 1990, 1992, 2001 and 2007–08. Six overlap a recession as dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research (1970, 1974, 1980–81, 1990, 2001, 2007–08); four fall in expansions (1971, 1975, 1983, 1992). Pay. Average hourly earnings for all private employees were $38.00, up 3.1% from a year earlier (3.12%). September’s year-over-year rise was revised from 3.02% to 3.16%, above August’s, so our October 2 read’s “third slowdown in a row” no longer holds. Yields. U.S. Treasury par yield curve closes: the 2-year 4.46% on November 5 and 4.51% on November 6. The Federal Reserve next decides on December 9. The next Employment Situation is scheduled for December 4.