US non-farm payroll employment grew 661k in September, below expectation of 875k. Though, August’s figure was revised up from 1371k to 1489k. BLS also said notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in retail trade, in health care and social assistance, and in professional and business services.
Unemployment rate dropped to 7.9%, down from 8.4%, beat expectation of 8.3%. Unemployed persons dropped -1m to 12.6m. Both measure declined for the 5th month but were higher than pre-pandemic level of 4.4% and 6.8m respectively. Labor force participation rate dropped -3% to 61.4%. Average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% mom, below expectation of 0.4% mom.
