NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs in September, far below expectations, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The tepid September gain contrasts with a solid 133,000 job gain in August. Economists polled by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal had expected payrolls to rise by 84,000 to 90,000 in September.
Meanwhile, the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised down from an increase of 21,000 to a decrease of 10,000, and the August figure was revised down by 29,000, from 162,000 to 133,000. The downward revisions to nonfarm jobs for the prior two months totaled 60,000.
Private-sector employers added 46,000 jobs in September, but government job cuts offset the gains, according to the report. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent in September, up from 4.1 percent in the previous month.
U.S. stock futures rallied and Treasury yields fell following the report, as investors bet that weak hiring would make the Federal Reserve less likely to raise interest rates at its Oct. 27-28 meeting. S&P 500 futures added to early gains, rising 0.4 percent, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slid to 5.22 percent.
The report came amid a broad bond-market selloff that earlier this week pushed U.S. Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years, and just over a month before the November midterm elections.
The Fed last month raised its benchmark short-term interest rate for the first time in three years, shifting its focus from supporting the labor market to fighting inflation.
"There's been a pretty wide-ranging set of data, including the labor markets, that the economy has strengthened," Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said at a press conference in September.
Economists cautioned against reading too much into one weak month. Seasonal adjustment factors likely affected the data, as Labor Day fell late in September, and August's surprisingly strong gain may have overstated hiring.
Analysts said the relatively steady unemployment rate partly reflects a shrinking labor supply, as baby boomers retire and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown keeps labor market entry low. Some argue that it signals a "low-hire, low-fire" jobs market.
However, American workers' anxiety over job security has reached its highest level in 13 years, with 44 percent expecting the unemployment rate to rise in the coming year, according to recent survey data.
The mean perceived probability that respondents could find a new job if they lost their current one fell to 45.4 percent, a level near historic lows, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Survey of Consumer Expectations for August. ■