With an increase in private sector employment partly offset by a drop in government jobs, the Labor Department released a report on Friday showing that employment in the U.S. rose by less than expected in the month of September.
The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 156,000 jobs in September compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 176,000 jobs.
While the job gains in August were upwardly revised to 167,000 from 151,000, the job growth in July was downwardly revised to 252,000 from 275,000.
The Labor Department said the job growth in September was primarily due to employment gains in professional and business services and health care.
On the other hand, the report said government employment fell by 11,000 jobs after seeing notable gains over the past few months.
The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate edged up to 5.0 percent in September from 4.9 percent in August. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
The uptick in the unemployment rate came as the household survey measure of employment jumped by 354,000, but the number of people in the labor force surged up by an even bigger 444,000.
Paul Ashworth, Chief U.S. Economist at Capital Economics, said the modest job growth combined with the uptick in the unemployment rate "won't stop the Fed from hiking interest rates at the December FOMC meeting, but it should quell any speculation of a move at the November meeting."
Meanwhile, the report said average hourly employee earnings rose by 6 cents to $25.79. Compared to the same month a year ago, average hourly earnings were up by 2.6 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
