September Jobs Report: US Adds Just 29,000 Jobs
Published October 5, 2026, 04:36 UTC
US employers added 29,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, October 2, at 12:30 UTC. That was well below the 90,000 gain economists polled by LSEG expected, Fox Business reported. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%.
Revisions cut earlier months
BLS also revised the two prior months lower. July went from a gain of 21,000 to a loss of 10,000, and August was cut from 162,000 to 133,000. Together, employment in July and August is 60,000 lower than first reported, according to Fox Business. The Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill noted that July's figure is the first negative monthly reading since February.
Private hiring versus government
Private payrolls grew by 46,000, below an expected 85,000. Government payrolls fell by 17,000, led by a 13,000 drop in local government, mostly in education. Manufacturing added 9,000 jobs, construction 11,000 and healthcare 16,700, while financial activities lost 7,000.
The Fiscal Lab report said government employment is down 216,000 over the past 12 months. It also said the rise in unemployment was only about 0.03 percentage point before rounding and was not statistically significant. Labor force participation was 61.8%, according to Fox Business.
Average hourly earnings were up 3% from a year earlier, below the 3.2% economists expected.
What economists said
Vanguard senior economist Adam Schickling described "a low-hire, low-fire labor market," and said the report "strengthens the case for the Federal Reserve to remain patient," according to Fox Business. Phil Camporeale of JPMorgan Wealth Management said the mix of weak hiring, downward revisions and softer wages is "further evidence that the labor market is not a source of inflationary pressure."
Why crypto readers are watching
The Fed raised its target range to 3.75% to 4% on September 16 (see our Fed explainer). After the jobs data, the CME FedWatch tool showed a 79.5% probability that the Fed holds rates at its late-October meeting, up from 35.8% a week earlier, Fox Business reported. Decrypt reported that bitcoin briefly tested $87,173 on Friday before pulling back.
The next jobs report, for October, is scheduled for November 6 at 13:30 UTC, according to the BLS release schedule.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- Fox Business, September jobs report: US economy added jobs at a slower pace amid uncertainty (Oct. 2, 2026)
- Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill, The Fiscal Lab Jobs Report for September 2026 (Oct. 2, 2026)
- Decrypt, 'Uptober' Starts Green as Bitcoin ETFs Draw $134 Million (Oct. 4, 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Schedule of Releases for the Employment Situation, accessed Oct. 5, 2026
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