The number of people marginally attached to the labor force fell by 236,000 to 1.468 million in September, BLS said, while the broader number outside the labor force who wanted a job changed little.
The Black unemployment rate rose from 6.0% to 7.0% in September, but employment and labor-force participation also rose. The number of unemployed grew by about 231,000, roughly twice the 110,000 gain in employment.
U.S. employers added 29,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate was 4.2%, up from 4.1% in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. July and August payroll gains were revised down by a combined 60,000.
BLS said employment changed little in all major industries in September. Health care, nonresidential specialty trades and manufacturing still edged up, while financial activities lost jobs.
Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose 5 cents to $37.81 in September, up 3.0% from a year earlier, BLS said, as payroll growth slowed to 29,000.
About 1.9 million Americans had been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer in September, 27.1% of all unemployed people, BLS said. For job seekers, the figure is a reminder that a low-layoff market can still be a hard one to re-enter.
BLS revised July payroll employment from a gain of 21,000 to a loss of 10,000, and July and August combined are now 60,000 lower than first reported. Here is what revisions mean and why the first estimate is not the final word.
Metro Atlanta had 3,105,100 nonfarm payroll jobs in August, down 14,300 from a year earlier, BLS reported September 30. The 0.5% decline was not statistically significant, and the metro unemployment rate fell to 3.4% from 3.6%.
U.S. employers reported about 7.08 million job openings on the last business day of August, down from a revised 7.34 million in July, while hires, quits and layoffs changed little, according to the BLS JOLTS release of September 29.
BLS data for March 2026 put employer compensation costs at $39.85 per hour worked in the Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs combined statistical area, versus $75.12 in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area. These are employer costs, not take-home pay.
