Hiring in the United States rose by 336,000 in September, and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%, according to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, health care, professional, scientific and technical services, and social assistance.
The bureau said in a statement that the household survey measures labor force status including unemployment, by demographics. The establishment survey looks at non-farm employment, hours and earnings by industry.
The major labor market indicators from the households survey showed little or no change in September. In addition to the unemployment rate holding at 3.8%, the number of unemployed persons was also unchanged at 6.4 million.
Some analysts suggested that the report is proof that the economy gained momentum through the summer, fueled partly by increased consumer spending. This would defy economist expectations for a slowdown driven by high interest rates, elevated inflation, resuming student loan payments and rising oil prices.
In major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.8%), adult women (3.1%), teenagers (11.6%), whites (3.4%), blacks (5.7%), Asians (2.8%) and Hispanics (4.6%) also remained basically flat.
The number of long-term unemployed people — jobless for 27 weeks or more — changed minimally at 1.2 million in September and accounted for 19.1% of all unemployed persons. The labor force participation rate, however, was 62,8%, and the employment-population rate was 60.4%. The number of persons not working who currently want a job was 5.5 million.
Average hourly earnings for employees on private non-farm payrolls rose by 7 cents to $33.88, a 0.2% increase. In the past 12 months, average hourly earnings increased 4.2%, and the average work week for production and non-supervisory employees held at 33.8 hours.
