RPLS US Jobs Report: The US economy adds 26k jobs in October

Employment

Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy added 26k jobs in October 2026, marking the third consecutive month of job gains after mostly negative readings earlier in the year. Job growth was driven by Health Care and Social Assistance, Retail Trade, and Public Administration. Meanwhile, Leisure and Hospitality, Information, and Professional and Business Services saw the largest losses.

Health Care and Social Assistance continues to lead job growth, but Retail Trade stands out: after being a consistent drag on employment earlier this year, it was the second-largest contributor to job growth in October. White-collar sectors, on the other hand, lost ground, with Information and Professional and Business Services among the sectors shedding the most jobs.

Hiring & attrition

Both hiring and attrition ticked up in October, with the hiring rate rising 0.3 pp to 20.9% and the attrition rate rising 0.6 pp to 20.7%, after the attrition rate hit a series low in September. Despite the uptick, the labor market continues to be defined by low churn: both rates remain near the bottom of our series, well below their 2021–2022 peaks above 30%.

Layoff notices

WARN layoff notices fell sharply in October. The number of employees notified of layoffs dropped from ~30k in September to 16.6k in October, the lowest monthly total since 2022 and well below the 25k–40k range that has prevailed for most of 2026.

Manufacturing saw by far the largest number of employees notified of layoffs in October 2026, with about 5.7k workers, roughly a third of the monthly total. It was followed by Retail Trade (1.5k) and Information (1.4k). In Information, Netflix was a notable contributor: in mid-October the company announced it would cut roughly 1,000 jobs, about 6% of its global workforce and its largest round of layoffs since 2022. The cuts are concentrated in product, technology, legal and HR roles, as the company restructures amid slowing growth and intensifying competition for viewers’ attention.

Job postings

Active job postings dipped in October, falling 2.4% to roughly 18.4 million from 18.8 million in September. Despite this monthly decline, postings are up 1.1% from a year ago, and labor demand has been on a gradual upward trajectory in 2026: postings have recovered from a low of ~17.8 million in January to the 18.5–19 million range since the summer. Postings nonetheless remain well below their 2022–2023 levels.

Most sectors saw fewer job openings in October. In absolute terms, the largest declines in postings were in Leisure and Hospitality, Retail Trade and Manufacturing. Professional and Business Services, Information and Construction were among the few sectors that added postings.

Salaries from new job openings

Salaries from new job postings remained almost unchanged in October 2026 compared to September. Transportation and Warehousing posted the largest month-over-month gain (+2.3%), followed by Public Administration (+1.2%) and Leisure and Hospitality (+0.9%).

Within these sectors, Southwest Airlines and DoorDash in Transportation and Warehousing, the State of Georgia and the City of Philadelphia in Public Administration, and Wendy’s and Dave & Buster’s in Leisure and Hospitality were among the companies with the largest salary increases. On the other end, Utilities (−0.9%), Information (−0.7%) and Mining and Oil Extraction (−0.4%) saw declines, led by Veolia and American Electric Power, Workday and Intuit, and Freeport-McMoRan and Halliburton, respectively.

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