U.S. job growth slowed in September, lower than economists expected, as the unemployment rate rose in the final jobs report before the resulting midterm elections.
The U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, far less than economists expected, according to a report released Friday by the Labor Department. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an increase of 90,000 jobs, compared to the Dow Jones forecast of 84,000 jobs.
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The unemployment rate also increased by 0.1 percentage point from 4.1% to 4.2%.
The healthcare sector led the increase, accounting for the majority of new jobs. The industry added 17,000 jobs, slowing from an average of 33,000 per month over the past year. The construction industry added 11,000 jobs, and the manufacturing industry added 9,000 jobs.
Financial activities, including sectors such as commercial banking and insurance, lost 7,000 jobs.
Most other sectors, including retail, oil and gas extraction, and leisure and hospitality, were largely unchanged.
“Today’s disappointing report shows that the labor market is coming to a standstill with weak employment and falling real wages, leaving workers with little power,” Kyle Moore, chief economist at the Century Foundation think tank, said in comments provided to Al Jazeera.
Past employment statistics have also been revised downward. The figure for July has been revised from an initial increase of 21,000 jobs to a decrease of 10,000 jobs. The figure for August was revised downward by 29,000, from 162,000 to 133,000.
Wage growth was 3%, the lowest annual wage increase in the past five years.
Friday’s jobs report ended a week of weak economic data ahead of the resulting Nov. 3 midterm elections.
According to an AP-NORC poll released Thursday, 61% of Americans surveyed said the U.S. economy is worse off now than it was when President Trump took office in January 2025.
“When businesses are hiring very few people and wage increases aren’t keeping pace with rising prices, that’s an economic slowdown, and working households are stuck in that situation,” Breyon Williams, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, an economic policy think tank, said in a statement.
President Trump is trying to change the narrative about the struggling economy. “U.S. employment numbers are at an all-time high,” he said in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
stagnation of growth
The Job Openings and Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday showed little change, suggesting what economists call a low-hiring, low-firing environment. This means that people with jobs generally don’t leave for new jobs, while employers maintain the status quo rather than expand.
Meanwhile, ADP’s private payroll report released on Wednesday showed 90,000 jobs were created across the private sector. Challenger Gray & Christmas says the number of layoffs has also decreased significantly. Employers cut more than 43,000 jobs in September, with the number of layoffs down 18% from August, according to a report released Thursday.
Friday’s jobs report comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s final policy decision before midterm elections. The central bank will decide whether to raise, lower, or keep interest rates unchanged at its two-day policy meeting on October 27-28.
According to CME FedWatch, a tool that tracks potential monetary policy decisions, it is increasingly likely that the Fed will keep interest rates stable in the range of 3.75% to 4.00%. The probability that interest rates will remain unchanged is now 77.3%, up from 35.8% at this time last week, according to the FedWatch tool.
Following this report, the US market is on an upward trend. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.5% in intraday trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the S&P 500 rose 1.1%.
The price of gold, considered a safe investment during times of economic uncertainty, rose 1.1% to $4,223.49 following the jobs report.
