Overview
- July and August payrolls were revised down by a combined roughly 33,000 jobs, with August now showing a 4,000 job loss.
- Hiring was concentrated in health care (+43,000), restaurants and bars (+37,000) and social assistance (+14,000), while transportation and warehousing shed 25,000 and federal employment fell by 3,000.
- Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% on the month and 3.8% year over year, and labor force participation edged up to 62.4%.
- The 43-day government shutdown delayed the report and prevented collection of the household survey for October, so no standalone October unemployment rate will be published.
- October establishment data will be released alongside November’s figures on December 16, making September the last full jobs snapshot available to the Fed before its December 9–10 meeting.