The U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, well below Wall Street's expectation of 84,000, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1% to 4.2%.
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Zooming out, the year looks weak. From January through September, the country added 612,000 jobs. In the last 20 years, only 2010 and 2025 were worse — not counting the three years the country actually lost jobs: 2008, 2009 and 2020.
Healthcare did the heavy lifting in September, accounting for about 80% of the month's net gains. Construction, hospitality and manufacturing also grew.
The biggest losses came from government, down 17,000, along with information, business services and finance.
Looking at the broader trend, this is a healthcare jobs market. Healthcare is up 18% since 2022, and the growth is steady. Construction — largely because of data centers — is up nearly 10%. Government is up 6%. Everything else combined: just 3%.
On wages: earnings are up about 3% from a year ago, the slowest growth in five years. Last month's inflation came in at 3.4%. That's five straight months of wages falling behind prices — meaning, on average, a paycheck buys less than it did a year ago.
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