U.S. jobs report disappoints for September
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While the national unemployment rate remained at 5.1 percent in September, the number of jobs gained was low at 142,000. Further, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sharply revised downward its figures for job gains for the previous two months.
The number of jobs gained in August now stands at 136,000 instead of the 173,000 the BLS had estimated, the BLS reported Friday. The figure for July was revised from 245,000 to 223,000 jobs gained.
So over the past three months, job gains have averaged a mere 167,000 per month. To help put those figures in perspective, for all of 2015 thus far, job growth has averaged 198,000 per month – which compares poorly with 2014’s average monthly gain of 260,000 jobs.
Still, the unchanged unemployment rate of 5.1 percent met with analysts’ expectations, according to Yahoo Finance, and is cause for some optimism. Prior to August, the country’s jobless rate had not been that low since April 2008.
Health care added 34,000 jobs in September, the BLS reported. Other strong sectors included professional and business services and retail, adding 31,000 and 24,000 jobs respectively.
Employment in mining continued to decline in September, with 10,000 fewer jobs. Employment in other major industries – including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and government showed little or no change over the month.
The BLS Friday also reported that the number of unemployed people, 7.9 million, changed little in September.
For the year, the unemployment rate was down by 0.8 percentage point and the number of unemployed people fell by 1.3 million, the BLS said.
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