FG Construction displays a message We are recruiting! Sign at the JobNewsUSA South Florida Mega Job Fair held at Amerant Bank Arena on April 30, 2026 in Sunrise, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
A little-noticed category in Friday’s blockbuster jobs report challenges the consensus view on job losses caused by artificial intelligence.
At least for now, the data suggests that the United States is creating jobs thanks to the AI boom, not losing them.
And another category suggests that the strong jobs numbers may have some staying power.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 165,000 jobs in October, according to Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was a surprising increase in hiring that far exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones forecast growth of just 59,000 for the month.
Here are three surprising things you may have missed from the report.
Consultant
Recruitment of consultants increased sharply during the month, propelling the total workforce in the profession to a new record.
The management, scientific and technical consultant workforce increased by 17,300 jobs between September and October, the largest month-over-month increase in nearly two years. This category is a subset of the professional and business services sector tracked by the BLS and accounts for 25% of the overall sector’s gains for the month.
Additionally, this workforce has grown by more than 45,000 jobs over the past year. The gain brought the total number of employees for these types of workers past 1.9 million for the first time on record, according to BLS data.
Hiring in the sector had largely stalled since 2023, after years of rapid expansion during the pandemic. Wall Street wonders whether the rise of artificial intelligence will dampen demand for these services.
These fears drove the actions of the consulting firm Gartner losing more than half of their value over the past three years. Accenture And FTI Council fell about 18% and 9% during this period, although the S&P500 soared about 74%.
Gartner vs. the S&P 500 over the past 5 years
Now, some economists are speculating that the recent rise could be because companies are hiring consultants to help them adopt AI. Gartner predicted in September that global AI spending would total $2.7 trillion in 2026, a nearly 50% year-over-year increase.
“The development of AI and corporate interest in increasing its use will keep technical consultants employed,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial.
Roach called the consulting sector a bright spot in October that is “worth watching.” He noted that these jobs also experienced double-digit growth in the late 1990s, as companies rushed to implement new Internet technology into their operations.
Data so far suggests that AI could create more jobs in the labor market than it eliminates through automation. An assessment by Moody’s Analytics found that AI has created 786,000 net jobs since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, driven in part by data center construction.
“Wasn’t AI supposed to destroy jobs? The most dystopian scenarios even called for mass unemployment,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s, wrote in a social media post on Monday. “This risk has not gone away, and the productivity gains generated by AI could still move up a gear. But for now, AI contributes to job growth, without harming it.”
Temporary hires
Hiring temporary workers also boosted growth, which could indicate a warming labor market.
Payrolls for the subsector increased by 18,600 in October, one of its largest month-over-month increases since 2022. This category is another part of the professional and business services sector and accounted for 27% of the sector’s gains for the month.
The total size of that workforce is still well below the records reached in 2022. But the workforce has increased about 3% since December and is now at levels last seen in April 2025, the month when President Donald Trump’s rollout of his plan for high tariffs put U.S. businesses on alert.
Economists view temporary hiring as a leading indicator of the labor market. Conventional wisdom suggests that companies that hire new workers in the short term often transition them to full-time positions later.
That may be what’s happening here, but the fact that the end of the year is approaching makes things harder to determine. This increase could be the result of hiring as the holiday shopping season approaches – and if employers are recruiting staff for the holidays, they are less likely to retain those workers when January rolls around. Such hires don’t usually happen this early, but the season moves earlier each year. The BLS adjusts its numbers to account for seasonal trends, but will not immediately make an adjustment if the trend changes.
One clue that holiday hiring may be changing concerns a distinct category of workers: couriers and messengers. This is another area that serves as a barometer of labor demand during the holidays, and just over one in ten new jobs during the month fell into this category.
This category “is worth watching for a reversal in the coming months,” said Jason Pride, head of investment strategy and research at Glenmede, a wealth manager.
Election expenses
Political campaign-related hiring in the final weeks of a costly election cycle also could have boosted payrolls.
Employment in political organizations has historically increased as midterm or presidential elections approach, according to a BLS analysis. Staffing levels tend to peak in October of those years, the data shows. Nonfarm payrolls increased in the months leading up to the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections.
But the size of campaign coffers this cycle may have translated into more jobs than before.
The 2026 congressional election is expected to go down in history as the costliest midterm on record, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets, a money-in-politics watchdog group. The billions of dollars spent campaigning may have translated into paying jobs involving door-to-door canvassing, phone banking or other election-related work.
Gn bussni
