The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the economy created 134,000 seasonally adjusted new jobs in September. That’s the smallest gain since September 2017. The headline unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in 49 years. Of the total, 121,000 jobs were created in the private sector, 13,000 in the public sector. A gauge of both unemployment and underemployment rose 0.1 point to 7.5 percent.
The September results were 25 percent below what economists had forecast.
We can expect Donald Trump to again lie about how much faster jobs are supposedly growing under his regime than they did under President Barack Obama. It should therefore be noted that in the final 20 months of Obama’s presidency, the average monthly job increase was 208,000. Under Trump, the monthly average over the 20 months of his term has been 190,000.
It should also be remembered that by this time in 2008, the job market had been in a six-digit monthly free-fall for half a year. This continued for another 13 months, worsening right as Obama took over the reins from George W. Bush. Then, thanks to an Obama-initiated economic stimulus that some Democrats labeled necessary but inadequate, and 90 percent of Republicans flat-out opposed, the number of available jobs grew steadily, albeit with excruciating slowness over the next six years. Last month marked the 96th consecutive month of this job growth. The only thing Trump can take credit for is not having steered this growth off the rails. Yet.
The BLS reported that average wages have risen 73 cents since September 2017, or 2.8 percent. That rise compares with inflation currently running at an annualized 2.7 percent. In other words, just a sliver of gain for workers.
Each month, the BLS revises its count for the two previous months to take into account data that were not available when reports for those months were originally released. Friday’s report revised August’s count of new jobs from 201,000 to 270,000, while July’s tally was revised from 147,000 to 165,000 new jobs.
Two surveys provide data for each monthly BLS jobs report. Gains or losses are calculated via the Current Employment Survey of 147,000 business establishments, while the unemployment rate is based on the Current Population Survey of 60,000 households.
The civilian workforce rose by 150,000 after falling 469,000 in August and rising 105,000 in July. The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.7 percent in September. The employment-population ratio rose to 60.4 percent.
Here are some more details from the September jobs report:
Unemployment rates differ by race and sex. [Percentages in brackets are for August]. Adult men: 3.4 percent [3.5]; Adult women: 3.3 percent [3.6]; Whites: 3.3 percent [3.4] ; Blacks: 6.0 percent [6.3]; Asians: percent [3.0]; Hispanics: 4.5 percent [4.7]; American Indians: (not counted monthly).
• Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose in September by 6 cents an hour to $22.81.
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls in September rose 8 cents an hour to $27.24.
• Average work week for all employees on non-farm payroll remained unchanged at 34.5 hours in September.
• The manufacturing work week in September fell 0.1 to 40.8 hours.
September Job Gains and Losses for selected categories:
- Professional services: 54,000
- Temporary help services: 10,600
- Transportation & warehousing: 23,800
- Financial activities: 13,000
- Leisure & hospitality: -17,000
- Information: 0
- Education and health services: 18,000
- Health care & social assistance: 29,800
- Retail trade: -20,000
- Construction: 23,000
- Manufacturing: 18,000
- Mining and Logging: 5,000
Here's what the seasonally adjusted job growth numbers have looked like in the previous decade compared with this September’s gain of 134,000 jobs.
September 2008: -443,000
September 2009: -229,000
September 2010: -63,000
September 2011: 233,000
September 2012: 194,000
September 2013: 201,000
September 2014: 284,000
September 2015: 88,000
September 2016: 264,000
September 2017: 14,000