Hiring bounced back in a big way in October.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that the United States economy added 531,000 jobs in October. The growth in nonfarm payrolls came in a range of industries, with leisure/hospitality (164,000 jobs), professional/business services (100,000), and manufacturing (60,000) leading the way.

The hiring outpaced the predictions of Dow Jones analysts, who had forecast 450,000 new positions. It also helped edge down the unemployment rate to a pandemic low of 4.6%.

Notably, employers added 70% more jobs in October than they did in September, when the delta variant played a role in curtailing hiring.

“This is the kind of recovery we can get when we are not sidelined by a surge in COVID cases,” Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed, said in a CNBC report. “If this is the sort of job growth we will see in the next several months, we are on a solid path.”

Wages grew in October, rising 4.9% year-over-year and 0.4% for the month. That’s good news for workers and potentially a positive development for the economy at large, as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product. It is, however, also a sign that employers are having to dig deeper into their pockets to attract and retain employees.

The October jobs gain would have been even greater, had it not been for government payrolls shedding 73,000 positions. Sectors that added jobs included transportation and warehousing (54,400), healthcare and social assistance (46,900), construction (44,000), and retail (35,300).