The nation's unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since January 2009, suggesting job growth picked up over the summer and shifting questions in the presidential race about which candidate can best fix the nation's ailing economy.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September, the lowest level in more than 31/2 years. Payrolls increased by 114,000 with private companies adding 104,000 jobs. Sudeep Reddy and Phil Izzo join The News Hub to review the data. Photo: Getty Images.
The unemployment rate slid to 7.8% in September, falling below 8% for the first time since President Barack Obama's inauguration, the Labor Department said Friday. Employers added a seasonally adjusted 114,000 jobs last month, a tepid pace that was countered by the fact that figures for previous months were boosted above initial estimates. Those figures reflected that the nation added 181,000 jobs in July and 142,000 jobs in August, showing that job growth in the third quarter was far higher than in the spring.
The unemployment rate and the number of jobs are obtained from separate surveys and don't always align to convey the same picture of the labor market. That was the case this month. Overall, the report suggested the labor market—while stronger than it was during the spring—remains sluggish. The big drop in the jobless rate was in part due to workers settling for part-time jobs because they couldn't find full-time work.
Some economists said the decline in the jobless rate likely occurred over a longer period than the report indicates, because the way the government calculates job growth and the jobless rate can be flawed and lead to artificial jumps that are later revised.
"I take these numbers with an enormous grain of salt," said economist Joshua Shapiro of consultancy MFR Inc. in New York. "I think the underlying trend is pretty clear in terms of the labor market—that it's still struggling quite mightily."
The report is one of the final major gauges of the economy before voters head to the polls Nov. 6 to choose the next president. The jobless rate is now back to where it was when Mr. Obama took office, potentially strengthening the president's argument that the economy is on the right path and gradually healing from a deep recession. However, just one president, George W. Bush, in recent decades has won re-election when the unemployment rate was unchanged or higher than when he took office.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said the economy is greatly underperforming and that the president's policies have impeded faster growth.
Friday's report is the first since the Federal Reserve's decision to commence an ambitious stimulus program—buying $40 billion a month of mortgage-backed securities until the U.S. job market substantially improves. The latest numbers offer some good news with the falling unemployment rate but also suggests that job creation, while steady, remains slower than the Fed would like.
Messrs. Obama and Romney have sparred over whose economic policies would lay the best foundation for job creation.
At Wednesday's debate, Mr. Romney criticized the president for presiding over a period of high unemployment and stagnant wages that he said has squeezed middle-class families.
"If I'm president I will create—help create—12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes," Mr. Romney said.
Mr. Obama highlighted steady growth: The private sector has added nearly five million jobs since February 2010. And he called for a "new economic patriotism" that embraces spending on education, training, energy and other areas to speed the recovery.
Jeremy Zirin, Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for UBS Wealth Management, reviews the September employment data and looks at what the data mean for the economy. Photo: Getty Images.
Private companies accounted for most of the growth in September payrolls, adding 104,000 jobs.
In the private sector, employment increased in health care as well as transportation and warehousing. Manufacturing employment fell by 16,000.
Governments, meanwhile, added 10,000 positions as the federal and state-level workforces grew.
So far this year, overall job growth has averaged 143,000 a month, compared with 153,000 in 2011.
Average earnings rose by seven cents to $23.58 an hour, while the average workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours in September.
A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those in part-time jobs--held steady at 14.7% in September.
—Jeffrey Sparshott and Eric Morath contributed to this article. 
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