The U.S. job market just hit snooze: only 29k jobs added in September
Economists were expecting a nice, respectable hiring bounce, but employers across the country apparently decided September was prime nap season instead.
Wall Street projected around 84,000 new positions, so getting barely a third of that was quite the ice bucket challenge. The unemployment rate nudged up to 4.2%, leaving around 7.1 million people sitting on the sidelines.
Healthcare basically dragged the entire report across the finish line by adding 17,000 roles, while finance shed workers and the insurance industry continued its months-long slow bleed. On top of that, officials quietly shaved off 60,000 jobs from previous summer estimates, effectively admitting things were already worse than advertised.
For anyone betting on another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, this reading officially slams the door shut.
Cooling down the economy worked so well that the hiring engine is now making strange clunking sounds.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
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