The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September, the lowest since January 2009, from 8.1% in August as employers added 114,000 people to payrolls including 700 in the trucking industry, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The payrolls gain matched analysts’ median forecast while the unemployment rate had been forecast to rise to 8.2%, Bloomberg reported.
Labor revised its August jobs increase to 142,000 from an originally reported 96,000.
Trucking’s August employment increase was revised slightly downward to 1,300 from an originally reported 1,400, Labor figures showed.
July’s trucking gain was revised significantly higher to 45,400 from an originally reported 3,100 that had previously been revised upward to 5,500.
Transportation and warehousing sector employment, which includes trucking, jumped by 17,100 jobs in September following a revised 7,700 August increase that was previously reported as a 5,700 gain.
Manufacturing employment fell by 16,000 following a 22,000 decline in August that was a bigger drop than previously reported. The September downturn was in contrast to analysts’ forecasts of no change, Bloomberg said.
Private payrolls excluding government workers rose by 104,000, which was below analysts’ forecasts of a 130,000 increase, Bloomberg reported. Government employment rose by 10,000 following a 45,000 jump in August.
The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.
