Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 194,000 in September, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 4.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in public education declined over the month. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, ... (full story)

The U.S. economy created jobs at a much slower than expected pace in September, a pessimistic sign about the state of the economy though the total was held back substantially by a sharp drop in government employment. Nonfarm payrolls rose by just 194,000 in the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 500,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8%, better than the expectation for 5.1% and the lowest since February 2020.The headline number was hurt by a 123,000 decline in government payrolls, while private payrolls increased by 317,000. The drop in the jobless rate came as labor ... (full story)