The U.S. added a whopping 336,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate stayed even at 3.8 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
The September jobs report far exceeded expectations after several months of slowing employment gains.
Economists projected the U.S. to have added 170,000 jobs last month, according to consensus estimates, and knock the jobless rate down to 3.7 percent. The U.S instead added nearly twice that number without making a dent in the unemployment rate.
The US also added 119,000 more jobs than previously reported in July and August, according to revisions released by the Labor Department on Friday.
The surprisingly strong September jobs report followed several months of shrinking job gains, rising unemployment and other signs of an economic slowdown.
While the September jobs surge may be good news for Americans wary of a recession, it poses a new challenge for the Federal Reserve as it plots the next steps in its battle against inflation.
[UPDATE] Links to the actual report in case you want to read it:
Companies are able to add this many jobs even with higher interest rates because they are still flush with cash from decades of low interest rates, lobbying, income inequality and PPE loans.
Raising interest rates forces companies to spend their own capital to add these jobs instead of using money that the Federal Reserve prints to keep the interest rate low.
Raising interest rates sucks in the short term but it is required in the long term and severely overdue.
We can’t print free money forever just to have low interest rates.
I want to see interest rates at double digits, NOW!
That would be like taking a whole bottle of prescription pills at once to get better now instead of taking them as prescribed.
Tbf, it’d be awfully funny to watch.