Nonfarm payrolls increased by 263,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. Data for October was revised up to show payrolls grew by 284,000 instead of 261,000 as previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters estimated that payrolls would increase by 200,000. Estimates ranged from 133,000 to 270,000.
Hiring remains strong even as tech companies including Twitter, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have announced thousands of layoffs.
Economists said these companies were just the right size after overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. They noted that small businesses remained desperate for workers.
There were 10.3 million job openings at the end of October, many of them in the leisure and hospitality industries, as well as the health care and social care industries.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.6% after advancing 0.5% in October. That brought the annual wage increase to 5.1% from 4.9% in October. Wages peaked at 5.6% in March.
The report followed data on Thursday showing a slowdown in inflation in October. But the job market remains tight, with 1.7 vacancies for every jobless person in October, keeping the Fed on its tightening path at least through the first half of 2023.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank could slow the pace of its rate hikes “as soon as December.” The Fed authorities will meet on December 13 and 14.
The central bank has raised its benchmark rate by 375 basis points this year, from near zero to a range of 3.75% to 4%, in the fastest rate-hike cycle since the 1980s as it battles high inflation.
The strength of the labor market is also one of the reasons why economists believe that an anticipated recession next year would be short and shallow, and data on Thursday showed a rise in consumer spending in October. Business spending also held up, although confidence has weakened.
