Employers added 29,000 jobs in September as unemployment rose to 4.2%
Hiring slowed from August's 133,000, and average hourly earnings growth over 12 months fell to 3.0%, its lowest since May 2021.
Macro Bullseye · · Updated
US employers added 29,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That was down from 133,000 in August and from 76,000 in September 2025.
The numbers
Sep 2026 data · released Fri, Oct 2
- Nonfarm payrolls, change from the prior month
- +29KAug 2026: +133K
- Unemployment rate
- 4.2%Aug 2026: 4.1%
- Average hourly earnings, change over 12 months
- 3.0%Aug 2026: 3.1%
- Average hourly earnings, change from the prior month
- +0.1%Aug 2026: +0.3%
View the data as a table
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | +29K |
| Aug 2026 | +133K |
| Jul 2026 | −10K |
| Jun 2026 | +31K |
| May 2026 | +63K |
| Apr 2026 | +148K |
| Mar 2026 | +214K |
| Feb 2026 | −156K |
| Jan 2026 | +160K |
| Dec 2025 | −17K |
| Nov 2025 | +41K |
| Oct 2025 | −140K |
| Sep 2025 | +76K |
| Aug 2025 | −70K |
| Jul 2025 | +64K |
| Jun 2025 | −20K |
| May 2025 | +13K |
| Apr 2025 | +108K |
| Mar 2025 | +67K |
| Feb 2025 | +42K |
| Jan 2025 | −48K |
| Dec 2024 | +237K |
| Nov 2024 | +134K |
| Oct 2024 | +33K |
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). Revised figures replace earlier ones.Full release
The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 4.2%, up from 4.1% in August. A year earlier it was 4.4%.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.1% from August, after a 0.3% gain the month before. Over 12 months, pay growth slowed to 3.0% from 3.1%, its third straight decline. It was the lowest since May 2021, when it was 2.3%. A year earlier, annual pay growth was 3.8%.
Monthly job gains have swung widely over the past year. Payrolls fell in October 2025, December 2025, February 2026 and July 2026, and rose in the other months, from a high of 214,000 in March to 29,000 in September.
The next jobs report, covering October, is due Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 AM ET.
What it means for your money
- Slower pay growth tends to ease pressure on inflation, which can allow interest rates to come down over time. Wages are still rising, but at a slower pace than a year ago.
- A sharp drop in hiring tends to pull Treasury and mortgage rates lower. September's gain was small, and the unemployment rate edged up.
- Uneven monthly job numbers show hiring is not steady. Job security and pay raises may be harder to come by when employers add fewer workers.
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the official data and published only after an automatic check that every number in the text matches the figures above. Not investment advice. How we write these