The U.S. economy kept chugging along in October and employers kept hiring at a steady clip, even in the face of Hurricane Matthew, which likely impacted hiring activity. The number of jobs created last month didn’t quite meet expectations, but combined with data from August and September that was revised strongly upward, there’s a good amount to be encouraged by in today’s report. Most notably for the housing market, residential construction employment registered one of the strongest months of job gains in the past decade and now stands at its highest level since November 2008, welcome news for a housing market struggling to add enough new inventory to keep up with strong housing demand. Additionally, wages continued to grow, and are up 2.8 percent from a year ago. This is especially important, as the nation’s most expensive housing markets are home to a growing share of the nation’s jobs. In order for housing to remain affordable in these areas, wages need to grow alongside housing costs.