The long-awaited U.S. jobs report has finally been released, causing a stir in the stock market.

In September, the United States saw an addition of 119,000 jobs, surpassing economists’ expectations of a modest increase of approximately 50,000 jobs.

However, the employment figures for the summer months turned out to be less favorable than initially reported. The job gains for July were adjusted down from 79,000 to 72,000, while August’s numbers, initially showing a rise of 22,000 jobs, were revised to reflect a loss of 4,000 jobs.

Overall, these revisions point to 33,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated, with the unemployment rate climbing to 4.4 percent.

Despite these mixed signals, Wall Street responded positively to the strong September figures, with all three major indexes rising following the release of the government data.

Thursday morning’s jobs data is the final piece of Wall Street’s so-called ‘triple whammy’ in the past two days. 

Yesterday, Nvidia posted earnings well above investor expectations, relieving recent worries about over-investment in AI. This morning, Walmart also beat sales expectations, calming some fears about a potential drop in consumer spending.

Now, today’s jobs release could calm recent nerves over a massive spike in layoffs.  

The BLS posted its September jobs report on Thursday – it was late because of the government shutdown

It also ends nearly two months without official government data and offers the first clear snapshot of the labor market since the government shutdown. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics was forced to delay the September payroll numbers, initially due in early October. The blackout forced Wall Street and the Federal Reserve to rely on patchy private data.

The September jobs numbers offer a reprieve after employers kept slashing positions.  

In January 2025, the economy added 143,000 positions. But staffing has slowed significantly throughout the year.  

August’s report included a tiny gain of 22,000 jobs. July added 79,000, but June saw a loss of 13,000 — the first drop since the early pandemic and a warning sign that the labor market was starting to creak.

They also anticipated the unemployment rate to hold at 4.3 percent, with wages rising 0.3 percent on the month and 3.7 percent year-on-year.

Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, said ahead of the release that the numbers were likely to show ‘a little bit brighter outlook than is commonly assumed, but not much to brag about.’ 

He added: ‘The labor market is holding in there, just like the economy.’

But Thursday’s release is far from a complete picture. Because of the shutdown, the government will not publish a separate October jobs report at all. 

Instead, those figures will be folded into November’s data on December 16 — and there will be no unemployment rate for October.

Brusuelas warned the US is ‘muddling through a period of pervasive uncertainty’ and said markets may not get a ‘clean reading’ on the labor market until February.

The monthly jobs report is one of the most important pieces of economic data in America. It shows whether companies are hiring or firing, how much workers are earning, and how many people are struggling to find work.

A strong report — lots of hiring, rising wages, and low unemployment — signals the economy is healthy and Americans still have money to spend. 

A weak report suggests the US economy is losing steam and is at risk of a recession.

It is also crucial in shaping what happens to interest rates. The Federal Reserve watches the jobs report almost as closely as inflation.

If job growth slows or turns negative, it is a warning the economy is faltering, making the Fed more likely to cut rates to encourage spending. 

But if hiring and wages are rising quickly, officials worry that inflation could heat up again — making rate cuts less likely.

The strong jobs report slashed the chances of another Federal Reserve rate cut in December. Traders now put the odds at just 30 percent. 

Goldman Sachs previously flagged that October likely would have shown job losses, driven partly by furloughs tied to shutdown-related disruptions.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, warned in September that the US is in a ‘jobs recession’ that risks pushing the rest of the economy into a full-blown recession.