The October jobs report was in line with that of previous months and is not likely to sway the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. | Getty Last pre-election jobs report: 161,000 jobs created in October

The final pre-election jobs report showed the economy added 161,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department reported Friday, down from 191,000 in September.

The October jobs report was in line with that of previous months and is not likely to sway the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.


Unemployment was 4.9 percent, down from September’s 5 percent.

Average private-sector earnings were up 10 cents over September, when they rose 8 cents. Wages were up 2.8 percent over October 2015.

At the White House, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Jason Furman, said wages grew at "the fastest 12-month pace since the recovery began" and "have grown faster over the current business cycle than in any since the early 1970s."

Republicans were less impressed.

In a statement, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's national policy director, Stephen Miller, said the "disastrous jobs report underscores the total failures of the Obama-Clinton economy that delivers only for donors and special interests and robs working families."

And House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said the report "continues the slow-growth trend we’ve come to expect from the Obama Administration."

Analysts said October's jobs report was a good sign for the economy and increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in December.

Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial in Detroit told Bloomberg "the pace of job growth remains pretty steady." And the report, he added, supports the idea that the opportunity is there for the Fed to raise rates, and it's certainly appropriate for them do so."

Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the increase in wages was "a sign of a tightening labor market, where workers may be starting to gain some leverage." But she added the "Federal Reserve was correct not to raise interest rates this week, as the economy has been consistently hitting singles, but not hitting it out of the park."

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted the creation of about 178,000 jobs, an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent and an increase in hourly earnings of 0.3 percent. The payroll company ADP estimated Wednesday based on its own records that October job growth in the private sector was 147,000.

The jobs report followed news from the Commerce Department last week that GDP increased 2.9 percent during the third quarter of 2016, according to an advance estimate. That’s well above the second quarter of 2016’s 1.4 percent and the first quarter of 2016’s 0.8 percent.

The Commerce Department’s second cut at estimating third quarter growth for 2016 will be released Nov. 29.