Employers add 156K; US jobless rate ticks up to 5 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 156,000 jobs in September, a decent gain that reflects a steady economy but also a sign that hiring has slowed from its robust pace last year.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 5 percent from 4.9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, but mostly for a positive reason: More Americans felt confident enough to start looking for work, though not all of them found jobs. As a result, more people were counted as unemployed.

Job growth has averaged 178,000 a month so far this year, down from last year’s pace of 229,000. Still, hiring at this year’s level is enough to lower the unemployment rate over time. Economists have expected the pace of job growth to slow as the supply of unemployed workers declines.

The September hiring figures could keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise the short-term interest rate it controls by December. After seven years of pinning that rate at a record low near zero to try to spur more borrowing and spending, the Fed raised its rate modestly in December. It has not acted since.

Friday’s report also comes a month before voters will decide a presidential election in which the two major nominees have sketched out wildly conflicting views of the economy’s health and what should be done to stimulate its growth.

In September, average hourly pay rose 6 cents to $25.79 and is now up 2.6 percent from a year ago. That’s better than the gains for most of the seven-year economic recovery, during which pay has increased at a tepid pace of about 2 percent a year. The pay increases, modest as they are, suggest that many employers are being forced to pay more to attract workers.