U.S. professional and business services employment rose by 70,000 in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday, well above the sector's 15,000 average monthly gain over the prior 12 months³.

Techmeme summarized a Wall Street Journal report by Ian Hodgson as saying the October increase was the largest for professional services since July 2022 and that consulting, legal and accounting payrolls all grew despite fears that artificial intelligence would cut those jobs¹. The Journal article itself was not independently readable without a subscription¹.

The Washington Post, citing the same Labor Department report, said the sector includes lawyers, accountants and consultants and called the 70,000-job rise the biggest gain in several years².

BLS said employment continued to trend up in professional, scientific and technical services, up 33,000; in administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, up 28,000; and in management of companies and enterprises, up 9,000³. The broader sector has added 269,000 jobs since a recent low in October 2025, the agency said³.

The Post said consulting firms added about 17,000 jobs and temporary-help agencies about 19,000, and noted that the sector also includes lower-paid work such as temps, janitors and security guards².

Brian Bethune, an economist at Boston College, told the Post the October bump could reflect campaign spending on consultants, ads and temporary workers and that he expected agencies to shed about 20,000 jobs in November as that work faded².

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in October, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent, BLS said³. The next Employment Situation release is scheduled for Dec. 4, 2026³.

Whether October's professional-services gain will persist, how much of it was election-related, and whether AI is changing hiring inside consulting, law and accounting are not settled by a single month of payroll data^2,3.