(Xinhua) — U.S. employers added 194,000 jobs in September, with the unemployment rate dropping to 4.8 percent, as the labor market recovery continues to slow down amid a Delta variant-fueled COVID-19 surge, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday.
The latest data followed upwardly revised job gains of 366,000 in August. In July, job gains were over 1 million.Thus far this year, monthly job growth has averaged 561,000, according to the report.
In September, job gains were significant in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing, the report showed. Employment in public education, meanwhile, declined over the month.
Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 74,000 in September, with continued job growth in arts, entertainment, and recreation.
Meanwhile, employment in retail trade rose by 56,000 in September, following two months of little change, the report showed. Employment decreased by 144,000 in local government education and by 17,000 in state government education in the month, lower than usual as most back-to-school hiring typically occurs in September.
Employment in health care declined by 18,000 in September, with job losses occurring in nursing and residential care facilities and hospitals.
The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.8 percent in September, after dropping by 0.2 percentage points in the previous month. The measure was down considerably from its recent high in April 2020, but remained well above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5 percent.
The number of unemployed persons fell by 710,000 to 7.7 million, well above the pre-pandemic level of 5.7 million.
Among the unemployed, the number of permanent job losers declined by 236,000 to 2.3 million in September but is 953,000 higher than in February 2020. The number of persons on temporary layoff, at 1.1 million, changed little in September, and is 374,000 above the pre-pandemic level.
The labor force participation rate was little changed at 61.6 percent in September, the report showed, noting that it has remained within a narrow range of 61.4 percent to 61.7 percent since June 2020. Enditem
