The employment market in the United States continues to trend upwards after the monthly payroll data released by the Labor Department showed that 204,000 positions were added in October.

According to The Washington Post, the significant gains made in various industry sectors across the country defied the expectations of leading economists, many of whom had predicted that the partial government shutdown would have an effect on the job market. However, the U.S. economy has demonstrated its resilient nature on a number of occasions during the last 12 months, and the robust hiring last month would certainly indicate that this is likely to continue.

Although the national unemployment rate showed a slight overall increase – moving from 7.2 to 7.3 percent – the underlying consensus is that the market as a whole has improved over the past month, especially when taking into consideration the end of the financial year is imminent. In fact, the gains demonstrated in October pushed beyond the average of 190,000 jobs added to the economy each month, another potential indicator of labor market strength in 2014.

Positives in private sector
There were demonstrated increases in professional and technical services, management and technical consulting and retail, with the healthcare sector also experiencing significant monthly growth. According to the Labor Department, 15,000 positions were added to the healthcare industry, which to some economists, may be a result of October 1st's official rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

"This is good news for the economy," said John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo, in an interview with the Post. "Take it at face value."

Prior to last week's release of the October figures, there were other indications that 2013 would finish strongly in terms of labor growth. According to the Los Angeles Times, initial jobless claims had dropped for the fourth week in a row, with federal government data showing that the weekly average for the month had dropped below 350,000, irrespective of the governmental shutdown.

In an interview with various media sources, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez also noted that the published figures highlighted how the economy continues to grow, especially when considering that amended figures for August and September showed a net gain of 60,000 more positions than previously reported.

"The resiliency really points to the need for us to have our foot on the accelerator, not the brake," he said.