U.S. job growth is solid in September
Posted on December 1, 2016
Patrick Gillespie@CNNMoney
October 7, 2016
The economy added 156,000 jobs last month, a tad lower than the revised job gains for August, the Labor Department said Friday. It was the next-to-last checkup on the job market before Election Day.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 5% from 4.9%. Sometimes that's a sign that people are coming back into the job market, and that was the case in September.
"It turns out that Goldilocks is real: The labor market is not too hot and not too cold," says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a nonprofit, and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
August's job gains were revised up to 167,000 jobs from 151,000. July's gains were revised down but were still very strong at 252,000 jobs.
Paychecks are improving faster for Americans, too. Wages grew 2.6% in September compared with a year ago. That's not stellar, but it's better than the growth of 2% or less seen for years during the recovery.
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