US economy added 254K jobs last month blowing past forecasts

The economy added a whopping 254,000 jobs last month — blowing past forecasts that predicted a modest rise and diminishing Wall Street’s hopes of another big rate cut from the Federal Reserve next month.The Labor Department also reported that the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% — a decline from 4.2% in the previous month.Consensus estimates had the number of jobs created last month at 150,000 — up from the 142,000 jobs that were reported in August.The unemployment rate in August declined slightly to 4.2% after unexpectedly rising to 4.3% in July.Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Monday that more interest rate cuts are in the pipeline but suggested they would occur at a measured pace intended to support a still-healthy economy.At their last meeting Sept.18, Fed officials reduced their rate to 4.8%, from a two-decade high of 5.3%, and penciled in two more quarter-point rate cuts in November and December.On Monday, Powell said that remains the most likely outcome.“If the economy performs as expected, that would mean two more cuts this year,” both by a quarter-point, Powell said.Earlier this week, data provided by ADP found that private sector companies added 143,000 jobs in September — which was above analyst estimates for 125,000 and much higher than the 99,000 jobs that were added in August.The increase in jobs added to the private sector snapped a streak of five straight months of declines.But there was also data that pointed to a weakening job market.

The Labor Department said earlier this week that the quits rate — a key metric indicating worker confidence in the economy — dropped to 1.9% in August compared to 2% in July.The 1.9% rate is the slowest pace since June 2020.Another metric, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), found that the hiring rate hit 3.3% in August — down from 3.4% in July.Excluding the pandemic, the 3.3% rate was the lowest since August 2013, according to Yahoo! Finance.Posted job openings, too, hav...