U.S. employers added 336,000 jobs in September in a sign of economic resilience
LA TimesA FedEx driver makes deliveries in Palatine, Ill. Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%, not far above a half-century low. The nation’s employers added 336,000 jobs in September, an unexpectedly robust gain that suggests that many companies remain confident enough to keep hiring despite high interest rates and a hazy outlook for the economy. Though the Fed’s hikes have made loans much costlier, steady job growth has helped fuel consumer spending and kept the economy growing, defying long-standing predictions of a forthcoming recession. It’s possible that the cooling of pay growth may help reassure the Fed’s inflation fighters, who are scrutinizing every scrap of data to determine whether to raise their key rate once more this year. Job growth has remained resilient for most of the past 2 1/2 years even after high inflation flared and the Fed jacked up interest rates at the fastest pace in four decades.