U.S. employers added 254,000 workers in September, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, the Labor Department said Friday.
Economists had predicted 150,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.2%. This number far exceeded even the most optimistic predictions. Some analysts had expected just 70,000 employees to be added to the payroll.
In addition to the strong report, the forecast for July was revised upward by 55,000 to 144,000, and the forecast for August was revised upward by 17,000 to 159,000. These revisions added a total of 72,000 jobs.
The numbers show that the labor market was much stronger than it appeared when the Fed decided to cut interest rates by 50 basis points last month. The market is likely to expect the pace of production cuts to slow in the coming months, given the much stronger-than-expected numbers.
The three-month average, which economists consider a better indicator of underlying employment trends, rose to 186,000.
Private sector employment was expected to rise by 125,000 people. On Friday, the government announced an increase of 223,000 people.
The only glaring weakness was in manufacturing employment, which fell by 7,000, following a decline of 27,000 in the previous month.
