The U.S. added a whopping 336,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate stayed even at 3.8 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

The September jobs report far exceeded expectations after several months of slowing employment gains.

Economists projected the U.S. to have added 170,000 jobs last month, according to consensus estimates, and knock the jobless rate down to 3.7 percent. The U.S instead added nearly twice that number without making a dent in the unemployment rate.

The US also added 119,000 more jobs than previously reported in July and August, according to revisions released by the Labor Department on Friday.

The surprisingly strong September jobs report followed several months of shrinking job gains, rising unemployment and other signs of an economic slowdown.

While the September jobs surge may be good news for Americans wary of a recession, it poses a new challenge for the Federal Reserve as it plots the next steps in its battle against inflation.


[UPDATE] Links to the actual report in case you want to read it:

  • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    What do they mean when they added more jobs? Does that mean 336k people became employed, or 336k jobs were posted by companies? Because I’ve been laid off for a year and I see the same job, I did a 7 round interview for being habitually reposted for the last 6 months.

    • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      For this data, it’s 336k more people employed. There is a different survey called JOLTS (job opportunity labor turnover survey, I believe) that counts job openings.

      The reposted job would count as a job opening in that survey, and since you applied and are thus actively looking for work, you would count as unemployed for U3 unemployment. U6 is the one that disregards your intentions and just counts if you are working or not (but like stay at home moms count as unemployed in U6 even if they aren’t looking for work).

      So there’s a lot of ways to look at the data.

  • jackoneill@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What do you want to bet most of those are people taking second jobs to make ends meet in this fucked economy and not like, unemployed folks finding jobs

    • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I had the same question, so I looked up the actual report:

      The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.1 million, changed little in September. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

      Source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

      • Encode1307@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        In the scheme of hundreds of millions of people, 300k doesn’t make a big difference (percentage-wise)

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The U.S. added a whopping 336,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate stayed even at 3.8 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

    Economists projected the U.S. to have added 170,000 jobs last month, according to consensus estimates, and knock the jobless rate down to 3.7 percent.

    The US also added 119,000 more jobs than previously reported in July and August, according to revisions released by the Labor Department on Friday.

    While the September jobs surge may be good news for Americans wary of a recession, it poses a new challenge for the Federal Reserve as it plots the next steps in its battle against inflation.

    Fed officials are set to meet twice more before the end of the year and expected in September to raise interest rates one more time.

    The Fed decision to hold off on a hike last month came as the labor market appeared much weaker than the September jobs report showed.


    The original article contains 299 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 46%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      The Fed is posturing to raise interest rates directly because this is more jobs than they expected. Can’t let those poors get too much, the QOL is not going to increase because of this job boom, the interest rate is.

      Mary Daly at the fed

      “If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,”

      They tell you in plain language what they’re trying to do with the rate hikes, and if that labor market isn’t cooling what do you think is gonna happen? Yall downvote anything that doesn’t fit your ‘Biden is always right and everything around him is good’ perception.

      • drewdarko@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Companies are able to add this many jobs even with higher interest rates because they are still flush with cash from decades of low interest rates, lobbying, income inequality and PPE loans.

        Raising interest rates forces companies to spend their own capital to add these jobs instead of using money that the Federal Reserve prints to keep the interest rate low.

        Raising interest rates sucks in the short term but it is required in the long term and severely overdue.

        We can’t print free money forever just to have low interest rates.

      • Pohl@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Tempted to just down vote and move on. But, you are very right about the feds intentions. They are terrified of wage growth. There is a school of macroeconomists who think wage growth is essentially locking in inflation and is the scariest thing that can happen in an inflationary environment. They are idiots and it seems not to have occurred to them that we could have an actual labor shortage and wages just have to go up per supply and demand.

        Anyway your last paragraph is some bonkers bullshit. The executive branch and the president specifically is not in control of the federal reserve and in fact by design is meant to have limited influence on the actions of the fed governors. Also, this entire thread is people twisting themselves in knots to ignore good news for workers so they can maintain their view that Biden is fucking up.

        • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Nowhere did I claim Biden was fucking up, only they people defend everything around him for no reason. This is good news for workers, what we’re upset about that the fed is going to make it our problem so that any benefits are barely going to be felt by us. The unemployment number didnt even move so its not like less people are out of work now too. The economy grew due to worker effort and now were gonna get slapped with higher rates for it.