The U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs in September

The U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs in September

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report Friday showing continued job growth in multiple sectors of the U.S. economy which added 254,000 jobs in September – defying economists’ expectations of nearly 143,000 jobs. July and August jobs reports were also revised upward by 55,000 and 17,000 respectively.

Leisure and hospitality once again led the gains (+78,000) with 69,000 of those gains coming from the food services and drinking places subsector. Other industries with significant growth included Healthcare (+45,000), Government (+31,000), Social Assistance (+27,000) and Construction (+25,000).

Manufacturing declined again in September (-7,000) while other industries, such as financial activities, information, retail and transportation/warehousing, continued to show little change.

Average hourly earnings for all employees increased by .4% again in September and 4% over the last 12 months. The unemployment rate (4.1%) and the number of unemployed people (6.8million) showed little change in September.

The labor force participation rate stayed at 62.7% for the third month in a row, and the number of people employed part time who would have preferred full-time employment declined slightly from 4.8 million to 4.6 million.

On Snagajob, overall job postings were down 9.5% month over month but up 21% year over year. Retail had a significant increase (+56%) along with Management (+11%) over August due to seasonal hiring. Losses were driven by Customer Service (-15%), Transportation (-41%), Education (-31%), and Warehouse & Production (-14%) industries.

Here’s your roundup of key insights from the report:

• NPR: Average wages in September were up 4% from a year ago. That's likely more than enough to outpace rising prices, giving workers a real boost in their purchasing power.
  Manufacturing has been in a slump for most of the last two years. Factories cut 7,000 jobs in September, although factory employment is still higher than it was just before the pandemic, by 137,000 jobs.

• New York Times: A broader measure of labor market slack, which includes people who want a job but have been discouraged from looking, sank back to 7.7 percent in September after spiking higher over the summer.
  As strong as the job market is, there are still signs that people who need jobs are having a harder time finding them. The average duration of unemployment rose to 22.6 weeks, the highest since 2022. Some 1.6 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, the standard threshold for long-term unemployment.

• CNN:  Robust service-sector hiring — particularly across the health care (+71,700) and leisure and hospitality (+78,000) industries — drove last month’s job gains. Service industries accounted for 202,000 of the monthly gains.

• JP Morgan: These upward revisions raise the three-month moving average pace of jobs growth to 186,000 from 116,000 the prior month, reiterating the economy remains strong.

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Hourly Jobs

All industry data is from 1/1/2023-9/30/2024

Here are the latest Snagajob overall job numbers:

Overall hourly jobs posted on Snagajob are down 10% month over month, but up 21% year over year.

Here are the latest job numbers by industry and category:

Retail jobs are up 56% month-over-month and 54% year-over-year. Management is also up 11% over the same period.

After August's 18% month-over-month increase, Food & Restaurant jobs are down 6% for September.

Healthcare jobs are down 11% month-over-month.

Warehouse & Logistics jobs are down 14% month-over-month.