September 2014 US Job Creation

The U.S. economy appears to be picking up steam even before holiday-related jobs are added. Employers added 248,000 nonfarm jobs (on a seasonally adjusted basis) in September, according to initial estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number surpassed the consensus forecast of 215,000 jobs.

Jobs and Rent Growth

Meanwhile, the BLS revised July and August employment gains upward; from 212,000 jobs to 243,000 in July and 142,000 jobs to 180,000 in August, for a net gain of 69,000 jobs. Next month's second revision of the August estimate could still approach the 200,000 mark, as Axiometrics predicted in last month's Jobs Report.

Job gains averaged 226,700 per month for the year to date ending September 2014, according to the BLS' Current Employment Survey (also known as the payroll survey). Monthly job gains averaged 192,900 during the first nine months of 2013, some 17.5% below 2014's year-to-date average.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from the Current Population Survey (also known as the household survey) fell sharply to 5.9% from August's 6.1%. However, the number of people participating in the labor force continues to decline. Labor force participation was 62.7% in September, 10 basis points (bps) lower than in August and the lowest level since February 1978.

Some 155.9 million Americans were in the labor force as of September. The number of unemployed decreased by 329,000 to 9.3 million in September, though the number of those who left the workforce for reasons such as retirement, discouragement, disability or public assistance increased by 315,000. Of the 92.6 million not in the labor force, 6.35 million want a job but are not looking for one.

The number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) decreased by only 9,000 to 2.95 million in September, but there were 1.17 million fewer long-term unemployed than in September 2013. Another 7.1 million people were working part-time for economic reasons in September, 174,000 fewer than the previous month.

Payroll employment growth by sector in September was led by:
Professional & Business Services (+81,000).
Trade, Transportation, & Utilities (+37,000).
Education & Health Services (+33,000).
Leisure & Hospitality (+32,000).
Construction (+16,000).
Administrative & support services (+58,900) and professional & technical services (+21,100) led the Professional & Business Services sector. Almost 20,000 of the new administrative & support jobs were in temporary help services. Ambulatory health care services (+22,600) led gains in Education & Health Services, while the relatively low-paying food & beverage store subsector added 19,500 jobs to Trade, Transportation, & Utilities.

The Leisure & Hospitality sector experienced an increase of 23,300 jobs in accommodation & food services, particularly in food services & drinking places (+20,400). All Construction subsectors experienced positive growth, with specialty trade contractors contributing the most jobs (+8,800).

After months of weak or negative growth, the Government, Information and Financial Activities sectors each contributed 12,000 new jobs in September.

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