U.S. job growth unexpectedly surged in September, boosted by a flurry of hiring across different sectors of the economy.
Employers added 336,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, almost double the 170,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists.
It marked the best month for job creation since January. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at 3.8%.
"It was a blockbuster jobs report, but just as important was how well-rounded hiring was," said Robert Frick, corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union. "Health care jobs no longer stole the spotlight, but the long-awaited surge in government hiring has started, and leisure and hospitality got a second wind, along with staffing up at bars and restaurants."
US ECONOMY ADDS 336K JOBS IN SEPTEMBER, BLOWING PAST EXPECTATIONS
Job gains were mostly broad-based last month, with the leisure and hospitality industry leading the way. The sector, the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, added 96,000 new jobs last month, above the average gain of 61,000 over the previous 12 months.
The biggest gains came from restaurants and bars, which hired 60,700 new workers, finally returning to their pre-pandemic level of employment. Hotels, meanwhile, brought aboard 15,600 employees last month.
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Hiring in government was the second-biggest contributor to the headline job gain last month. The sector hired 73,000 employees in September, with the biggest gains in state government education (29,100) and local government education (10,800), the result of teachers returning for the start of the school year.
Another big source of job creation in September was health care, which saw payrolls increase by 40,900. There were notable gains in the offices of physicians (7,400), home health care services (6,400) and outpatient care centers (2,900). Hospitals also accounted for a percentage of the gains, hiring 8,400 workers last month.
Hiring increased in other industries, including social assistance (25,000), professional and business services (21,000), retail trade (19,700), manufacturing (17,000) and wholesale trade (11,700).
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Just one sector of the economy — information — shed jobs last month, its employment falling by 5,000 in September. The losses were concentrated in the motion picture and sound recording industries, "reflecting the impact of labor disputes," the Labor Department said.
Employment in this sector has declined by 45,000 since May, when Hollywood writers first went on strike. Actors joined the writers on strike in mid-July.
