United States: Job gains pick up in September
Latest reading: Total non-farm payrolls grew by 254,000 in September, up from August’s 159,000 and close to double market expectations. The unemployment rate was 4.1% in September, down from August’s 4.2%.
September’s data should assuage some fears over a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy, and could also cause the Federal Reserve to tread carefully with future rate cuts.
Panelist insight: Digging into the data, TD Economics’ Thomas Feltmate said:
“Overall, this was a strong employment report. Not only did job gains come in well above expectations, but revisions also showed a stronger pace of hiring in prior months. For the third quarter, payrolls totaled 557k, up from Q2’s gain of 442k.”