Washington, DC, November 5--Payrolls grew by a robust 337,000 in October, more than twice the increase recorded in September, according to the Labor Department.
The department also revised its estimates of payrolls growth for September and August, saying employers added 156,000 more jobs than previously thought.
That brought the total of jobs created over the last 13 months to 2.2 million.
The unemployment rate, as a result, rose a tenth of a percentage point to 5.5%. Most economists now expect jobs to grow at a pace of 200,000 a month for the remainder of the year, although the unemployment rate isn't expected to fall much.
The average forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC had called for a 192,000 increase in payrolls and a 5.4% unemployment rate.
The Labor Department revised its estimates of job growth for August and September, saying employers added 198,000 jobs in August and 139,000 in September. Previous estimates had shown a 128,000 increase in August and a 96,000 increase in September.
The report showed the service-producing industry added 272,000 jobs in October, the largest increase since April. Within that category, the professional and business-services industry -- which includes temp services -- added 97,000 jobs, the biggest increase since April. The construction industry added 71,000, the biggest increase since March 2000.
The manufacturing industry, however, shed jobs for a second month in a row. Manufacturing jobs declined by 5,000 last month after a 14,000 decline in September.
The jobs growth coincided with a minuscule increase in average hourly earnings, which rose five cents to $15.83 in October. Wage gains moderated in year-on-year terms: the increase last month was 2.6%, up from 2.4% in the year through September. The average work week was unchanged at 33.8 hours.
The Labor Department said 8.1 million people remained unemployed in October. The number of people who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more rose to 1.79 million from 1.75 million in September.
