Delayed government data show US added surprisingly strong 119K jobs in September

The US economy added significantly more jobs than expected in the first batch of economic data released since the government shutdown — a jolt that is unlikely to help the case for an interest rate cut next month.

Employers added 119,000 jobs in September, up from the 4,000 jobs lost in August following a revision and far above expectations of 50,000 added jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% — from 4.3% the previous month and the highest figure since October 2021.

Hourly earnings increased 0.2% for the month and 3.8% from the previous year, according to the jobs report.

Analysts had expected respective increases of 0.3% and 3.7%.

Investors have been eager to gain their first glimpse of the state of the labor market as Fed officials have increasingly advocated for a more cautious rate-cutting path.

A drastically weakened labor market could push central bankers to slash rates.

“Thursday’s jobs report was much stronger than expected and it’s possible that the Federal Reserve may take more of a wait and see approach to rates in December,” Alexander Guiliano, chief investment officer at Resonate Wealth Partners, said in a note Thursday.

September’s better-than-expected data are largely backward-looking, though, and there have already been several likely shocks to the US labor market.

About 100,000 federal workers went off payrolls in October after accepting delayed resignations.

The October jobs report is expected to be released in December, though the White House has warned that only half of the data will be published.