by Calculated Risk on 10/04/2019 08:44:00 AM

From the BLS:

The unemployment rate declined to 3.5 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 136,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in health care and in professional and business services continued to trend up.
...
Employment in government continued on an upward trend in September (+22,000). Federal hiring for the 2020 Census was negligible (+1,000).
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised up by 7,000 from +159,000 to +166,000, and the change for August was revised up by 38,000 from +130,000 to +168,000. With these revisions, employment gains in July and August combined were 45,000 more than previously reported.
...
In September, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls, at $28.09, were little changed (-1 cent), after rising by 11 cents in August. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.9 percent.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the monthly change in payroll jobs, ex-Census (meaning the impact of the decennial Census temporary hires and layoffs is removed - mostly in 2010 - to show the underlying payroll changes).

Total payrolls increased by 135 thousand in September ex-Census (private payrolls increased 114 thousand).

Payrolls for July and August were revised up 45 thousand combined.

This graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In September, the year-over-year change was 2.147 million jobs.

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate was unchanged in September at 63.2%. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.   A large portion of the recent decline in the participation rate is due to demographics and long term trends.

The Employment-Population ratio increased to 61.0% (black line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate was declined in September to 3.5%.  This is the lowest unemployment rate since 1969.

This was below consensus expectations of 145,000 jobs added, however July and August were revised up by 45,000 combined.

I'll have much more later ...