Labor report shows 254,000 jobs added in September

(The Center Square) – The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data shows that the American job market picked up in September with the unemployment rate declining slightly to 4.1%.

The report shows employers added 254,000 jobs, higher than the previous 12 months average monthly gain of 203,000, and higher than the 159,000 jobs added in August.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last month, the first time in years, in an attempt to battle inflation.

"Today's employment report confirms suspicions that we are in a high neutral rate environment where responsible monetary policy requires caution in rate cutting. With the benefit of hindsight, the 50 basis point cut in September was a mistake, though not one of great consequence," posted former Secretary Treasure Lawrence Summers on X.

He continued, "With this data, "no landing" as well as "hard landing" is a risk the @federalreserve has to reckon with. Nominal wage growth remains well above pre-COVID levels andit does not appear to be decelerating."

The information is gathered from two surveys. The household survey covers labor force status and unemployment by demographic characteristics. The second survey, known as the establishment survey, covers nonfarm employment hours and earnings by industry.

The uptick in employment was in food services and drinking places, health care, government, social assistance, and construction jobs, with food services and drinking places increasing by 69,000 in September compared to the average monthly gain of 14,000.

Health care added 45,000 jobs, ranking below average throughout the previous 12 months, with government agencies reaching 31,000, social assistance employers 27,000, and construction companies coming in at 25,000 in September.

Average hourly wages climbed 0.4%, according to the report.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a slight decline in the unemployment rate from 4.2% the previous month to 4.1%. The number of unemployed people was 6.8 million. This number is higher than last year, when the jobless rate was 3.8%, with 6.3 million unemployed people.

The number of long-term unemployed, those unemployed for longer than 27 weeks, had little change from the previous month but has increased to 1.6 million from last year's 1.3 million.

The report states that undocumented migrants are likely included in both surveys since neither is designed to ask the legal status of each worker, making it impossible to determine how many are counted in either survey. While the household survey includes identifying questions for foreign and native-born people, it does not include questions about the legal status of the foreign-born.

The report includes revisions to nonfarm payroll employment from July, which was revised from 89,000 to 144,000, and August revisions went from 142,000 to 159,000.