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The  private sector added 110,000 jobs in October, a bit better than  expected but still indicative that the labor market is showing little  improvement.

Coupled with a report showing that planned layoffs at  U.S. firms dropped in October after hitting a more than two-year high  the month before, unemployment is showing only grudging signs of  improvement.

Employers announced 42,759 planned job cuts  last month, tumbling 63.1 percent from 115,730 the month before,  according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray &  Christmas. It was the lowest level in four months.

Still,  October's job cuts were up 12.6 percent from the same time a year ago,  when 37,986 layoffs were announced. For 2011 so far, employers have  announced 521,823 cuts, outpacing the 449,258 layoffs announced during  the first 10 months of 2010.

The total for the year remains well off recession levels, the report said. In 2009, layoffs stood at 1,192,587 by October.

Fewer  layoffs in the financial and government sectors drove the decrease last  month, though they are still the top job-cutting industries for the  year.

"We seem to be in a pattern of two or more consecutive  months with low job-cut totals, followed by a sudden spike one month,  typically resulting from a small number of large layoffs," John  Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas,  said in a statement. "But this is not surprising in light of how slow  and uneven this recovery has been. We will probably see more of the same  through the first half of 2012."

Meanwhile, hiring plans surged  to 159,177 last month from 76,551 in September, as companies announced  seasonal positions. Retail jobs led the way with 133,940 openings.

The  release comes two days ahead of the key U.S. jobs report from the  government, which is forecast to show the economy created 95,000 jobs  last month.