The U.S. added 142,000 jobs in September, which is fewer than most analysts projected, while the jobless rate remained unchanged at 5.1% and wages fell slightly, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report released Friday morning.
The New York Times reports the numbers show a possible economic slowdown after a slow month in August, and that this report could push any movement by the Federal Reserve to raise the interest rates into next year, despite previous statements that the Fed would make a change this year.
The Labor Department report also revised last month’s jobs gain from 173,000 to 137,000, meaning the country has averaged 167,000 new jobs added each of the last three months. Other major findings include that the average workweek fell to 34.5 hours from 36.5 hours and labor force participation dropped to 62.4% from 62.6%.
“There’s nothing good in this morning’s report,” Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago, told the New York Times. “We had very low levels of job creation, wage growth isn’t budging, and the unemployment rate would have risen if the labor force participation rate hadn’t fallen.”
Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor Economic Research, agreed with Tannenbaum’s assessment.
“Unfortunately today’s report will not give much reassurance to Fed policy makers,” he says.
Healthcare, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services saw job growth while mining, logging and manufacturing all suffered job losses.
The New York Times has the full story.
