US economy added 29,000 jobs in September: BLS

This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. End of dialog window. The U. S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, according to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate also ticked up slightly to 4.2 percent, the BLS reported. The economy added 162,000 jobs in August, after employers added 31,000 and 21,000 jobs in June and July, respectively. But BLS revised the past two months downward on Friday, now showing the market losing 10,000 jobs in July and adding 133,000 in August. The unemployment rate has remained below 5 percent since August 2021, after it spiked to a peak of 14.8 percent in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic — the highest mark since the Great Depression. Inflation, meanwhile, has remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for five-plus years, rising in recent months amid energy shocks from the Iran war. Annual inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, was 3.4 percent in August, down from 3.7 percent in July, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday. Core prices, which do not include more volatile food and energy costs, were up 3 percent year-over-year last month, as measured by the PCE, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said last month the unemployment rate is “running consistent with full employment,” adding the central bank’s dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability are not at odds in the “medium” term. “Economic growth — that is ensuring continuous, sustainable, durable, economic growth — that’s the business we’re in,” the Fed chair told reporters, after the central bank raised interest rates by a quarter point. “And the job we did today, the job we’ll continue to do, is to ensure price stability, which can mean that sustainable, durable, economic growth can go on for longer,” Warsh added. Traders are pricing in a roughly 72 percent chance of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) holding interest rates at a range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent at its next meeting, set for Oct. 27-28, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Multiple FOMC officials have recently forecasted future rate hikes, while noting they will continue to monitor incoming economic data. “As always, I’ll be watching the data and listening closely to what businesses and workers are telling me,” Anna Paulson, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and a member of the FOMC, said last week. “But let me be clear: returning inflation to 2 percent is non-negotiable, and I will support the policy path that gets us there while carefully weighing risks to the labor market along the way,” she added. The rate-setting panel’s next meeting will take place less than a week before the midterm elections, with President Trump and the GOP fighting economic headwinds and political history in a bid to prevent Democrats from snatching control of Congress. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.