A slow September for hiring
US employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, a sharp step down from earlier in the year and a sign that the labor market has cooled as 2026 enters its final quarter. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent.
Where jobs were added and lost
Healthcare led the gains with 17,000 jobs. Construction added 11,000, and manufacturing added 9,000. Government services lost 17,000 jobs. Temporary help services fell by nearly 11,000, and financial activities dropped 7,000, a pattern that often shows up when employers grow cautious about hiring.
Wages and the election
Average hourly earnings rose 3.0 percent from a year earlier, below the 3.2 percent economists polled by LSEG expected and the slowest pace in more than five years. The labor force participation rate was 61.8 percent and the employment-population ratio was 59.2 percent. Both have changed little since January.
Economists described a low-hire, low-fire market. Vanguard senior economist Adam Schickling said the labor market "remains resilient, but it is not accelerating," with hiring subdued and layoffs still historically low. Job openings sit near their weakest levels outside the pandemic.
The report lands about a month before the November 3 midterm elections, when voter views on prices and pay will shape races for Congress. Slower wage growth, coming after a stretch of high inflation, is likely to stay near the center of the political debate in the closing weeks of the campaign.
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