Picking up steam.

• Position: Indiana economic indicators

The October employment report is out, and despite the reaction of a jittery stock market, the news is good.

The country's seasonally adjusted payroll employment grew by 177,000 jobs, about the same gain as the month before. Manufacturing employment was unchanged, after seeing monthly declines for nearly half a year. Services added 114,000 new jobs in October, led by increases in business services, health services and hotels. And the recent growth in housing starts sparked a construction-employment gain of 30,000 jobs, following two months of decline.

The service sector has added 2.4 million jobs since March 1991, the official end of the recession. Total payroll employment growth is about 100,000 jobs fewer than that, as some other sectors have recorded...