NEW YORK – A monthly gauge of online labor demand in the United States rose in October, while construction and housing-related fields saw improvement compared with a year ago, the operator of a job search website said on Friday.

Monster Worldwide Inc, an online careers and recruiting firm, said its employment index gained 2 percent to 156 last month from 153 in September. The index was up 3.3 percent from 151 a year ago.

The index saw annual growth in 13 of 19 industries and 15 of the 23 occupations monitored last month.

Demand for jobs in the construction industry was up 17.2 percent on an annual basis, while the real estate, rental and leasing category gained nearly 9 percent.

Available jobs in retail trade were up 10.3 percent compared with last year ahead of the holiday shopping season.

The report was another look at the jobs market ahead of the government’s non-farm payrolls report later on Friday. Jobs growth is expected to have picked up modestly in October.

The Monster Employment index is a monthly analysis based on a selection of corporate career sites and job boards. The margin of error is approximately plus or minus 1 percent.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Leslie Adler)