The U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs in September, missing estimates, as inflation and immigration enforcement pressures weigh on parts of the labor market.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent, according to a report released Friday by the Labor Department.
Forecasters had expected gains of about 84,000 new jobs in September, consistent with a stable but sluggish labor market compared with the massive jobs boom that followed the coronavirus pandemic. Job gains in recent months have been erratic, with one-off events, such as the loss of legal status for immigrant workers, jostling payrolls.
“We’re probably going to see more volatility in the labor market this year,” said Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at the jobs site ZipRecruiter. “There’s just a lot of different factors impacting both worker movements and employer hiring expectations, and those are changing really, really quickly.”
The data reflects a labor market with few layoffs and a dearth of job opportunities. That hurts college graduates, in particular, who are entering the job market as companies adopt artificial intelligence technologies that can perform entry-level tasks.
In addition to advancement in AI, a storm of forces, including elevated gas prices triggered by the war with Iran and Trump’s push to raise tariffs and restrict immigration, are injecting uncertainty into the labor market. These economic pressures make it difficult to predict consumer spending. But consumers, the main driver of the U.S. economy, have been feeling increasingly dreary about the economy, as prices rise sharply for everyday necessities.
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