Quick Facts:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 336,000 in September.
- The federal unemployment rate was even at 3.8 percent.
- Job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality; government; health care; professional, scientific, and technical services; and social assistance.
- The unemployment rate held at 3.8 percent in September, and the number of unemployed persons was essentially unchanged at 6.4 million.
- The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.2 million in September. The long-term unemployed accounted for 19.1% of all unemployed persons.
Looking Forward:
- In a sign of continued economic stamina, payrolls grew by 336,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday. The increase, almost double economists’ expectations, serves as a confirmation of the labor market’s vitality and the overall hardiness of an economy facing challenges from a variety of forces.
- Federal Reserve policymakers have tried to rein in both wages and prices by pulling up interest rates. Some financial analysts believe that continued resilience in wage gains and job growth could hasten a downturn by prompting the Fed to raise borrowing costs further during its next meeting in early November.
- The report also contained steep upward revisions to job growth earlier this summer. Gains for July and August were revised up by a total of 119,000 jobs to a respective 236,000 and 227,000, the government said, suggesting that the labor market is hotter than it previously appeared.
- Good news for the labor market is bad news for traders. S&P 500 futures and futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 sank as investors boosted bets that another Fed hike is in the cards. The yield on 10-year Treasuries surged. Gold fell.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
