Unemployment drops to 7.8% from 8.1%; 114,000 jobs added
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. created a scant 114,000 new jobs in September, but the unemployment rate fell below 8% for the first time since President Barack Obama took office in a potential jolt to the election.
The Labor Department on Friday also revised employment figures for August and July to show somewhat faster job growth in late summer.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a 110,000 increase in jobs last month, based on the Labor Department’s survey of businesses. Hiring in September was largely in line with Wall Street expectations.
Yet the jobless rate, which is drawn from a separate survey of households, fell sharply after the biggest increase in employment in that report since 1983. Some 873,000 people in the household survey said they found jobs.
U.S. stock futures SPZ2 +0.44% were pointing to opening gains after the report’s release.
The household survey, however, is generally viewed as more erratic than the so-called establishment survey on a monthly basis, economists caution.
Still, the last time the unemployment rate was below 8% was in same month Obama took office in January 2009. The latest unemployment figures could give the White House a lift in a tight reelection.
Employment gains for August and July, meanwhile, were revised higher by a combined 86,000.
The number of new jobs created in August was revised up to 142,000 from an original estimate of 96,000.
July’s figure was revised up to 181,000 from 141,000.
In September, a.verage hourly wages rose 7 cents, or 0.4%, to $23.58. The average workweek edged up 0.1 hour to 34.5.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
