Holiday hiring and AI in focus with October jobs report on deck

A lukewarm job market may have gained some steam last month, as companies began hiring workers for the holiday season, although slowing wage growth and the impact of AI remain big concerns. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the October jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Economists expect the report to show the U.S. added 59,000 roles, up from September’s 29,000, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate is projected to remain unchanged at 4.2%. Workers’ wages, however, are expected to show annual growth of 2.9%, well below the latest rate of inflation. In September, the annual rate of inflation rose to 3.7%.

Since March, wages have grown more slowly than the pace of prices. While publicly traded tech giants have boomed — Thursday’s massive sell-off aside — workers are seeing little payoff, all while remaining on edge to see what the technology will do to their jobs. Those companies, which are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into developing artificial intelligence and data centers, are also driving up prices across the economy for consumers, from Apple products to Nintendo Switch 2 game consoles to laptop computers. As voters turned up at ballot boxes around the country on Tuesday, 75% of them told NBC News’ exit poll that the state of the