U.S. jobs continued to rise at a steady pace in October and wage gains accelerated, signs that the labor market and economy made steady progress at the start of the fourth quarter.

Payrolls climbed by 161,000 last month following a 191,000 gain in September that was larger than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 173,000. The jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent, while wages rose from a year earlier by the most since June 2009.

The figures are likely to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise borrowing costs next month for the first time in 2016. Underlying the steady gains in employment is a balance between hiring managers' need to keep up with stable domestic demand and the struggle to match more limited labor to skilled-job vacancies.