Economy Gains 263,000 Jobs in September; Unemployment Declines to 3.5%
The U.S. economy gained 263,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continuing strong job creation numbers are a clear sign that the worker-friendly policies implemented by President Biden continue to have a positive impact on working people.
In response to the September job numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted the following:
#JobsDay the @BLS_gov reported payroll gains of 263,000 in September from its establishment survey, the comparable number from the household survey was a weaker 12,000 (https://t.co/ukl1qcPBMD) and July and August payroll were adjusted up a total of 11,000 @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
Hispanic unemployment fell from 4.5 to 3.8% for the wrong reasons, a job in labor force participation and a drop in those employed. The weaker household employment compared to payroll, show the labor market is not overheating. 2/2 @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay h/t @aaronsojourner for the underlying chart, just a reminder how much better the job market has performed under Obama and Biden. There is a real cognitive dissonance among American voters who think the economy performs better under Republican Presidents. pic.twitter.com/jNaLNXymw5
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay Good news, the Black labor force participation rate rebounded in September, and is back to slightly above that for whites, but not fully recovered from its Spring peak. Black workers are highly sensitive to firms actually hiring workers, a better barometer than openings. pic.twitter.com/us02lRbUSj
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
Job growth was broad, but financial services is showing job loss as mortgage activity slows, retail and transportation & warehousing also lost (left of 0). The big gainers were education & health and leisure & hospitality. Construction and manufacturing continued to grow. @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/ojoJ6wGKu5
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay mixed news in labor force flows, the success of those who were not in the labor force in August landing a job, rather than lining up as unemployed edged back up, but women who were unemployed in August were more likely to drop out of the labor force than land a job. pic.twitter.com/FYADKpa3cq
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay In the Good News category, among the unemployed, the share who have been unemployed over 27+ weeks is returning to normal levels. These are among the hardest workers to place (for very different sets of reasons). The drop has slowed, but is continuing. @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/PvT7JKYVQH
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay The unemployment rate fell more for those with high school or who had less than high school than for those with schooling beyond high school. That is good news, the recovery continues to have broad impact. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/DM97k8N1yu
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
But it remains important to note that the unemployment rate for white high school dropouts in September fell to 3.8%, which is way below THE Black unemployment rate (all education levels) of 5.8% https://t.co/EsmYliGfY1
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
#JobsDay @BLS_gov reports 155,000 of the 263,000 added to payroll were women. This is a continuation of the recovery from the She-cession, with women regaining their share of jobs lost–except with gains in some sectors. @AFLCIO @CLUWNational pic.twitter.com/XfHEIxcEz8
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
After a boost for leisure & hospitality industry workers, who got a boost in July from states implementing their minimum wage law COLA’s, moth-to-month wage movements have been stable, and the odd case of utilities where wages sank briefly in August and edged back in September. pic.twitter.com/eFWb7HJOiW
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 7, 2022
September’s biggest job gains were in leisure and hospitality (+83,000), health care (+60,000), professional and business services (+46,000), manufacturing (+22,000), construction (+19,000) and wholesale trade (+11,000). Employment was down slightly for financial activities (-8,000) and transportation and warehousing (-8,000). Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining, retail trade, information, other services and government.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Latinos decreased (3.8%) in September. The jobless rates for teenagers (11.4%), Black Americans (5.8%), adult men (3.3%), adult women (3.1%), White Americans (3.1%) and Asian Americans (2.5%) changed only slightly throughout the month.
The number of long-term unemployed workers (those jobless for 27 weeks or longer) in September remained about the same as in August and accounted for 18.5% of the total of people unemployed.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 10/07/2022 – 14:40