The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, slower than July and August, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While job growth was slower, the overall unemployment rate dropped 0.4 percentage points to 4.8% for the month. The number of unemployed people fell by 710,000 to 7.7 million. Despite the improvement, September Household Survey data recorded that 5 million people were “unable to work due to their employer closing or losing business due to the pandemic.”
The economy has recovered from the worst effects of the pandemic but is still not at pre-pandemic levels of employment. In January 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5% and about 5.8 million people were unemployed. US total employment is now at 147.5 million, 3.1% lower than January 2020.
