WASHINGTON, DC—Continuing a trend of steady improvement that has yet to reach the velocity of accelerating the economy, US nonfarm payrolls rose by 214,000 in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Although posting smaller gains than the median of 235,000 in a Bloomberg survey of 100 economists, October represented the ninth consecutive month of job growth exceeding 200,000.

The unemployment rate ticked downward one percentage point to 5.8%, its lowest level since 2008. October's underemployment rate—the tally of workers who either are looking for full-time positions rather than part-time or have given up looking altogether—dropped to 11.5% from the previous month's 11.8%, representing the lowest rate since September '08.

The largest number of new jobs for the month, 42,000, occurred in the food services and drinking places sector, which has averaged 26,000 new jobs per month over the past year. Professional and business services employment continued trending upward, although the 37,000 new jobs added in October for these key office-using employment sectors were well below the 12-month average of 56,000.

Retail added 27,000 positions in October, with net gains seen in general merchandise stores (+12,000) and car dealerships (+4,000). There were 25,000 new healthcare jobs during the month, in line with the 12-month average of 21,000 new jobs. Employment also continued on upward trends in transportation and warehousing, which added 13,000 jobs, and construction, which posted a net gain of 12,000.

However, economists in commercial real estate who have been looking for signs of wage growth would not have seen much evidence in the BLS report for October. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $24.57 in October, the government said Friday. Over the past year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2%, a rate of growth that Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation, calls “sluggish.”

While noting that the continued winning streak of job growth is encouraging, Lindsey Piegza, chief economist with Sterne Agee, similarly wonders where the wage growth is. “The optimism from today's report is somewhat mitigated against the backdrop of an ongoing cycle whereby strength in the headline NFP number fails to be confirmed by other factors in the labor report,” she says. “While the headline rise keeps the average growth rate firmly above 200,000-plus, the quality of job creation remains insufficient to translate into wage pressures, nor has a clearly sufficient decline in labor market slack forced a meaningful increase in the workweek.”