US employers added 165,000 jobs in October, above what economists had expected, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent. The figures, published at the end of a turbulent week for markets, describe a labour market that is still creating work even as borrowing costs stay high.
Hiring held up across white-collar work
One of the questions hanging over the report was whether artificial intelligence is starting to cut office jobs. The evidence so far is mixed. White-collar industries most exposed to AI continued to add workers in October, though at a weak pace. That is not the sharp contraction some forecasts predicted, and it is not proof that the technology is harmless either.
Growth elsewhere has been solid. The economy expanded 3.4 percent in the third quarter, the fastest pace in a year, helped by consumer spending and heavy investment in AI infrastructure. Voters nonetheless gave the economy poor marks at the midterm elections, a gap that has become a fixture of American politics.
Inflation is the complication
The personal consumption expenditures index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, picked up in September. The reading arrived a day after the central bank held interest rates steady. Officials are widely expected to move again in December to keep price growth in check.
That combination, steady hiring plus firmer inflation, limits how fast the Fed can ease. It also keeps pressure on households who are still paying more for food, rent and insurance than they were two years ago.
Markets are telling a different story
Wall Street and Asian markets have been focused on something else: whether the AI trade has run too far. Technology stocks fell again in Asian trading on Monday after a sell-off driven by doubts about returns on AI spending. Tesla and SpaceX shed roughly 420 billion dollars in value during the week as investors reassessed the companies tied most closely to Elon Musk.
The split is unusual. Company earnings and employment data describe a resilient economy, while equity markets price in a sharp slowdown in AI capital spending. Both cannot be right for long. For now, the jobs report gives the Fed room to wait and watch rather than cut in a hurry.