The US economy added 254,000 jobs in September, blowing past expectations after the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would slash interest rates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number exceeded expectations from economists. Earlier in the week, ADP projected that the economy added 143,000 jobs in September.
President Joe Biden touted the positive numbers in a statement on Friday.
“Under my Administration, unemployment has been the lowest in 50 years, a record 19 million new businesses have been created, and inflation and interest rates are falling,” he said.
In addition, Biden mentioned how on Thursday, the International Longshoremen’s Association had reached a deal to suspend their strike until January.
“And we’re seeing the power of collective bargaining to lift up workers’ wages—including the progress made by dockworkers on record wages with carriers, and port operators and the reopening of East Coast and Gulf ports,” he said.
The unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged. The unemployment rate also decreased for men, while the numbers for adult women, teenagers, white people, Black people, Hispanics and Asian-Americans went virtually unchanged.
Health care saw the biggest addition of jobs, with 45,000 jobs, followed by government with 31,000 jobs, social assistance with 27,000 jobs and construction at 25,000 jobs.
Wages also grew by 0.4 percent during September and in the past 12 months, wages grew 4 percent.
In other good economic news, the jobs numbers for July were revised upwards, going from 89,000 to 144,000 while the jobs numbers from August went from 142,000 to 159,000.
