The US economy added 254,000 jobs in September. It's a significant increase from August, and came in well above the 150,000 expected by economists. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked slightly lower to 4.1%, coming in below the 4.2% expected by economists. Average hourly earnings also rose more than expected.
Morning Brief Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith break down how Wall Street is reacting to the better-than-expected data.
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl
huge beat to the upside. Look at 254,000. The survey, again, expected 150,000, pointing to a very strong labor market here, at least looking at those headline numbers. Unemployment rate of 4.1%, slightly lower than what was expected. Also slightly lower than what we saw last month at 4.2%. But when you take a look at average hourly earnings, that was increasing a bit more than expected, coming in a bit higher, four tenths of a percent. The expectation again was for a rise of three tenths of a percent. But that headline number, I did a double take there, 254,000. About 100,000 more than what the economists have been expecting.
Yeah, taking a look at the futures as of right now, you're seeing a rise across the board here. The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq are in the green, fractionally as they may be. You're you're seeing them jump off of this report here right now and a few of the other factors as we're taking a look into some of the other metrics, really coming in line with expectations. You got labor force participation rate. And then additionally here, taking a look again at that unemployment rate, it actually ticked lower right now, sitting at 4.1%. That's the actual versus the expectation of 4.2% here. So that is another considerable move that we're tracking here in addition to that headline 254,000 jobs added during the month. Kind of looking into some of the sectors as well here, as we continue to kind of pour into this employment situation for the month of September. Some of the largest areas where employment continued to trend up, food services and drinking places, healthcare, government, social assistance, and construction here. Uh and then there's also a note here, and of course, as we're navigating through hurricane season, the BLS certainly taking into account the different effects that that has. They actually note within this one specifically, Hurricane Francene, because of the timing of the reading, Hurricane Francene made landfall in September in Louisiana on September 11th during the reference periods for the household and establishment surveys. Their analysis actually suggesting that Hurricane Francene had no discernible effect on the national payroll employment, hours, and earnings from the establishment survey or the national employment rate from the housing survey as well.
