The United States added just 29,000 jobs in September, less than half of what economists expected and a steep drop from August's pace, according to the final employment snapshot the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release before next month's midterm elections.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%, and the government revised July's already-weak figure down further, to a loss of 10,000 jobs, while August's gain was confirmed at 133,000. Nearly all of September's growth came from healthcare, which added 17,000 positions, even as the information, financial and professional-services sectors shed workers. Average hourly earnings growth slowed to 3%, the weakest pace in more than five years.
The slowdown was not shared equally: unemployment among Black Americans jumped a full percentage point to 7%, double the rate for white workers, underscoring how a cooling labor market tends to hit some groups harder than others.
A split picture, a political problem
Not every gauge told the same story. Private payroll processor ADP reported 90,000 new private-sector jobs for September, a brighter reading driven by healthcare, education and hospitality hiring. Economists described the overall trend as a "slow-hire, slow-fire" labor market rather than a collapse. "Job gains have been a rollercoaster this year," said George Brown, senior economist at Schroders, "but a single soft report is unlikely to point to a lasting collapse." Bradley Saunders of Capital Economics called the figure "not disastrous," pointing to falling government payrolls and changes to temporary visa policy as added drags on growth.
The report lands a month before the Nov. 3 midterms and days after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years, with Chair Kevin Warsh arguing the labor market was "basically running consistent with full employment" even as "inflation is too high and has been for too long." Jeffery Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, said the data exposed a widening gap between "goods-producing sectors that support the AI boom" and service industries still adjusting to the technology's effects, and said the softness makes a second Fed rate increase this year less likely before December.
The numbers also complicate President Trump's message that the economy is "booming" and "the hottest" in the world. A new AP-NORC poll found just 17% of Americans approve of his handling of the cost of living and 26% approve of his economic stewardship overall — both marks lower than any recorded for his predecessor, Joe Biden. "I've done a very bad job of explaining how good the country is doing," Trump told reporters at a White House event this week.
Higher borrowing costs are adding to the pressure: mortgage rates jumped to 7.28% this week, their steepest one-week rise since 2022, while the 10-year Treasury yield reached its highest level in 24 years. With Republicans defending their House and Senate majorities, the administration has little room to downplay a jobs report arriving just as voters form their final impressions of the economy before they vote.
