US adds 263,000 jobs; unemployment rate falls to 3.5% in September

US employers hired more workers than expected in September, while the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 per cent, pointing to a tight labour market which keeps the Federal Reserve on its aggressive monetary policy tightening campaign for a while.

Non-farm payrolls increased by 263,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. Data for August was unrevised to show 315,000 jobs added as previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 250,000 job gains, with estimates ranging from as low as 127,000 to as high as 375,000.

The unemployment rate was at 3.7 per cent in August.

With the labor market still tight, wage gains remained solid. Average hourly earnings increased 0.3 per cent after a similar rise in August. That lowered the annual increase in wages to 5.0 per cent from 5.2 per cent in August. The Atlanta Fed’s wage tracker, which controls for compositional effects like skill level, occupation and geography, is running above 6 per cent.

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