The U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs in October, continuing a streak of what is now nine straight months of job creation over 200,000 positions per month and an average of 212,000 jobs per month over the past year, probably the best stretch of the recovery for the labor market. The previous two months were revised upward — August, the original report for which had just 142,000 jobs created, is now reported to have seen 203,000, which means that what definitely looked like an exception to this year’s stronger trend was really just a statistical mistake.

But it’s definitely not all good news: For one, this number, even though it’s well above trend for the recovery, slightly missed economists’ expectations, which were in the 230–240,000 range (I blame the GOP Senate takeover.) Again, though, more than 200,000 jobs a month is quite respectable — a lot of readers ask when the jobs report comes out every month whether our generally anemic jobs recovery has even been enough to keep up with population and workforce growth. It definitely is: The U.S. economy probably needs about 100,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth, so we’re making up real ground. On the other hand . . . we’re not doing so fast enough to really get us beyond one of the worst recoveries the industrialized world has seen this side of World War II.

Although wages rose a little faster this month than they have in the previous few months, they are hardly budging — they’re rising faster than inflation, but only just (at around 2 percent or a little higher, while reliable measures of inflation peg it at between 1.5 percent and 2). As Bob Stein has pointed out in these pages, cash earnings are rising noticeably faster, because hours worked are rising: This is a good thing for living standards and consumer spending. But at some point, a tighter jobs market should mean hourly wage gains, and we’re still not seeing them.