Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 336,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was
unchanged at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in
leisure and hospitality; government; health care; professional, scientific, and technical services; and
social assistance. …

In September, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $33.88. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.2 percent. In September, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $29.06. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.4 hours in
September. In manufacturing, the average workweek was little changed at 40.1 hours, and overtime wasunchanged at 3.1 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on
private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.8 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised up by 79,000, from +157,000 to
+236,000, and the change for August was revised up by 40,000, from +187,000 to +227,000. With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 119,000 higher than previously reported.
(Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies
since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)

[A couple of points worth noting. First, wage growth is still trailing inflation, which is odd if we’re adding this many jobs. Second, the revisions turned sharply positive in this report, making jobs growth look even larger. Third, there seems to be some growth in multiple jobholders, which have gone up 400K over the last year (table A-9). Finally, we can expect some reaction from the Fed to keep raising interest rates after this big spike in jobs growth. — Ed]