U.S. employers unexpectedly hired at a slower pace in September than in August, with labor supply shortages and virus-related impacts still exerting considerable pressure on the economic recovery.
The Labor Department released its September jobs report Friday and here are the main metrics compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Change in non-farm payrolls, September: plus 194,000 versus plus 500,000 expected, and a revised plus 366,000 in August.
- Unemployment rate: 4.8 percent versus 5.1 percent expected, 5.2 percent in August
- Average hourly earnings, month-over-month: 0.6 percent versus 0.4 percent expected, and a revised 0.4 percent in August
- Average hourly earnings, year-over-year: 4.6 percent versus 4.6 percent expected and a revised 4.0 percent in August
Non-farm payrolls were expected to pick up from August’s much weaker-than-expected print, when renewed fears over the coronavirus deterred more workers from re-entering the labor market. Friday’s report did come alongside upward revision to each of the last two payrolls reports, with August payrolls revised up by 131,000 to reach 366,000, and July’s payrolls revised up by 38,000 to 1.09 million.
September showed a ninth consecutive month of net payroll gains in the U.S. economy, albeit at a much slower-than-expected rate. And even after months of growth, total employment has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The civilian labor force was still down by about 3.1 million individuals compared to February 2020 as of September.
Click here to see the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.