The hiring was far stronger than the 65,000 new jobs that economists had expected.
Labor Department revisions added 84,000 new jobs in August and September.
The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent.
Professional and business services – a broad category of administrative and managerial workers – added 70,000. Healthcare companies hired nearly 42,000. Factories added 19,000 jobs. But hotels, restaurants and bars cut 10,600.
The jobs report comes three days after voters delivered a stunning defeat to President Donald Trump and his Republican Party in midterm elections, with many of those voters sighting their assessment of the economy.
Yet the American economy and job market have proven resilient in the face of a series of shocks — Trump’s double-digit taxes on imports and the war with Iran, which has driven U.S. gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and pinched family budgets.
Gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — advanced at a sprightly 3.4% annual pace from July through September, lifted by strong consumer spending and booming investment in artificial intelligence.
