US employers added fewer positions than expected in September, but the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since 1969, according to the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 134,000; economists had forecast 185,000 net additions according to Bloomberg. The unemployment rate fell to 3.7%.
As usual, the focus was on wages — but even more so this time. Average hourly earnings rose in line with forecasts, by 0.3% month-on-month and 2.8% year-on-year.
Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it was raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than twice the federal mandate of $7.25. That was not going to move the needle on last month’s wage number, but served as a key anecdote on the pressure companies were under — politically and due to a tight labor market— to pay workers more.
Investors were also watching the wage-growth number closely amid a sell-off in the bond market. Bond yields rise when prices fall, and they spiked on Wednesday to the highest level in over seven years after a strong payroll report from ADP and bullish comments from the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“The US economy is on fire right now and the bond market has been underestimating just how hot the economy is,” said Lawler Jasper, the head of research at London Capital Group. “What we are seeing here is that complacency start to fade.”
More to come, refresh this page for the latest at 8:30 a.m. ET.
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