What the jobs report means for investors

• The U.S. added 171,000 jobs in October
• Revised monthly payroll gains have averaged 165,000 the past 18 months
• Unemployment in the Eurozone was 11.6% in September

The October jobs report isn't robust -- but the U.S. is still growing faster than most other developed nations, and that means money will continue to flow into U.S. stocks and bonds.

The U.S. added 171,000 non-farm jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, far above the 125,000 economists expected. The private sector added 184,000 jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9%.

The report may turn out to be even better: It's revised frequently, and those revisions in the past few months have been upward, says High Frequency Economics. Payroll gains have averaged 143,000 the past 18 months, rather than the average 120,000 reported in the first, frequently revised estimates.

"It's a pretty solid report in the context of where we've been recently, " says American Century fixed income CIO Dave MacEwen. "But it's not really strong enough growth to significantly improve the unemployment rate."

And as bad as things are here, they're worse in Europe. Unemployment in the Eurozone -- the 17 nations that use the euro as currency -- was 11.6% in September, the latest data available. The German unemployment rate in September was 6.5%, but going in the wrong direction.

Japan's unemployment rate was 4.2% in September, but that's twice its historical average. The Japanese economy has been in the doldrums since 1989. Given such lackluster economic growth abroad -- and near-universal low interest rates in world economies -- it's would be no surprise for money worldwide to flow to U.S. markets.

The danger: Europe's weak demand could be a drag on U.S. growth in the future, MacEwen says, but not enough to derail the weak recovery we're seeing. He expects continued slow economic growth around 2% in the first quarter.

Even though scary headlines about the death of the euro have largely disappeared, the economic situation in Europe remains dire, says Steve Sachs, head of capital markets for ProShares. "The picture there is still deteriorating, and that means more continued money flows to dollar-denominated investments."