The U.S. Labor
Department announced on Friday that nonfarm payrolls surged by 254,000 in September
after an upwardly revised 159,000 increase (from 142,000) in August. The September
reading marked the strongest monthly increase since March (+310,000) and was higher
than the average monthly gain of 203,000 over the prior 12 months.
According to
the report, the largest jobs advances occurred in food services and drinking places (+69,000), health
care (+45,000), government (+31,000), social assistance (+27,000), and construction
(+25,000).
The
unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 per cent from an unrevised
4.2 per cent in the prior
month. This represented the lowest rate in three months.
Economists had predicted
the nonfarm payrolls to grow by 140,000 and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 4.2 per cent.
The labour
force participation rate was
unchanged m-o-m at 62.7 per cent in September,
while hourly earnings for private-sector workers soared by 0.4 per cent m-o-m
(or $0.13) to $35.36, following
an upwardly revised 0.5 per cent
m-o-m climb (from +0.4 per cent m-o-m) in August. Economists had foreseen the average hourly
earnings to increase by 0.3 per cent m-o-m in September. Over the year, the
average hourly earnings jumped 4.0 per cent in September, following an upwardly revised 3.9 per
cent surge (from +3.8 per cent) in the previous month. Economists had forecast the annual wage to grow by 3.8 per cent in September.
The
average workweek slipped
0.1 hour to 34.2 hours last month, marginally below economists' estimate
of 34.3 hours.