The U.S. economy added 336,000 jobs in September, surpassing consensus estimates by a meaningful margin. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent and the number of unemployed persons stayed essentially the same at 6.4 million.
Average hourly earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.2 percent, continuing its slowdown from 0.45 percent growth in June. Average hourly earnings during the past 12 months have gone up 4.2 percent.
The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.8 percent.
By employment category, the biggest increases in added jobs in September occurred in leisure and hospitality (96,000), government employment (73,000), health care (41,000), professional, scientific and technical services (29,000) and social assistance (25,000).
After August’s decline of 25,000 jobs, truck transportation added 9,000 jobs in September, while employment in motion picture and sound recording industries continued its