Nonfarm payroll increased by a meager 12,000 in October, well off what was forecasted by Wall Street but the numbers come with some important caveats, the Labor Department said in its report on Friday.

Two hurricanes and a massive labor stoppage combined to bring the October jobs count down to 12,000, according to a Friday report from the Labor Department, a precipitous drop from September’s revised figure of 233,

A strike at Boeing and a pair of major hurricanes curbed employment gains in October as the U.S. added a paltry 12,000 new jobs, temporarily muddying the view of how much the labor market is cooling. The increase in employment was the smallest since ...