A jobs report on Friday showed hiring accelerated in October, providing the first major snapshot of the economy since the midterms as the stock market seesaws in response to the election results.
Employers added 165,000 jobs in October, an increase from 29,000 jobs added a month earlier, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed.
The U.S. added an average of about 68,000 jobs per month over the first nine months of this year, according to an analysis by the Atlanta Federal Reserve. That pace marks an improvement from an average of 10,000 jobs added each month in 2025.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its best performance in more than a year on Wednesday, just a day after the midterm elections. A selloff on Thursday wiped out all of those gains, however, as investors appeared to digest risk for the tech industry posed by newly empowered Democrats.
The fresh jobs data, meanwhile, arrived at a delicate moment for the Federal Reserve, where policymakers are weighing a rate increase that could help tackle inflation but risks a slowdown in hiring.
The annual inflation rate stands at 3.7% as of September, the most recent month on record, putting inflation more than a percentage point above the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve, Oct. 28, 2026, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo
The Iran war drove up gasoline prices and catapulted inflation to a three-year high in May. Inflation eased over the summer, but continued unrest has kept price increases well above pre-war levels.
The combination of elevated inflation and a resilient labor market prompted the Fed to raise interest rates a quarter of a percentage point in September. It marked the Fed’s first rate hike since 2023.
That rate increase intends to help cool off inflation by slowing the economy and eating away at demand, though such a policy move typically yields results after a lag time lasting several months.
Policymakers may lose patience as they weigh whether the current level of interest rates is high enough to ease price hikes. The odds of a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in December are pegged at about 68%, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
