The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs than expected in September, but revisions to prior months’ employment numbers softened the blow.
The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls rose by 51,000 last month, well below the 120,000 or so that was expected. The overall unemployment rate edged down to 4.6% from 4.7%, however, and now stands at the lowest level since June.
Within manufacturing, employment fell by 19,000 from August, while construction jobs moved just slightly higher. Employment within the services sector jumped by 62,000 jobs.
Jobs data for August was revised to show an increase 188,000, from the previously reported 128,000, and July’s figure was raised to 123, 000 from 121,000.