WASHINGTON (AP) U. S. employers added a surprisingly solid 119, 000 jobs in September, the government said, issuing a key economic report that had been delayed for seven weeks by the federal government shutdown. The increase in payrolls was more than double the 50, 000 economists had forecast. Yet there were some troubling details in the delayed report. Labor Department revisions showed that the economy lost 4, 000 jobs in August instead of gaining 22, 000 as originally reported. Altogether, revisions shaved 33, 000 jobs off July and August payrolls. The economy had also shed jobs in June, the first time since the 2020 pandemic that the monthly jobs report has gone negative twice. And more than 87% of the September job gains were concentrated in two industries: healthcare and social assistance and leisure and hospitality. “We’ve got these strong headline numbers, but when you look underneath that you’ll see that a lot of that is driven by healthcare,’’ said Cory Stahle, senior economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. ”At the end of the day, the question is: Can you support an economic expansion on the back of one industry? Anybody would have a hard time arguing everybody should become a nurse.’’ The unemployment rate rose to 4. 4% in September, highest since October 2021 and up from 4. 3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday. The jobless rate rose partly because 470, 000 people entered the labor market either working or looking for work in September and not all of them found jobs right away.
https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/us-employers-added-surprisingly-solid-119000-jobs-in-september/
US Employers Added Surprisingly Solid 119,000 Jobs In September
