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In September, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, the lowest rate since December 1969, as employers added 136,000 jobs to the US economy. There were many signs of strength, including robust hiring in health care, transportation, professional services and state and local government.
But overall, the pace of hiring has slowed considerably since 2018, when the economy added an average of 223,000 jobs per month. The September jobs report comes in the same week as several other reports that showed the US economy is slowing.
Signs of strength
Despite cracks showing in the economy, hiring has long been a bright spot. As companies fight for talent, paychecks have grown, giving more spending power to consumers. Consumer spending has kept the economy growing even as the trade war hurts US manufacturing and farming.
The nation's underemployment rate, which looks at people who are unemployed as well as those who are working part time but would prefer full-time work, fell to 6.9%. That's the lowest reading for that measure since December 2000.
The unemployment rate for adults with less than a high school education fell to 4.8%, the first time that measure has ever been below 5% on data going back to 1992.
The economy also benefited from 1,000 new positions from the US Census. However, the massive GM strike, in which about 50,000 people joined picket lines, was not counted in this month's report.
Worries about wages
A bleaker point in the report came from wages.
Average hourly wages didn't grow between August and September. Over the past year, wage growth ticked up just 2.9%, which was lower than expected and the weakest annual growth since July 2018.
Still, on the whole, "this is not that weak of a report, despite the ebbing in job growth," Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO, wrote in a note to clients.
That said, weakening domestic and foreign demand in light of the trade war will add uncertainty for companies and increasingly weigh on job growth, Guatieri added.