The September labor market report was late, thanks to the government shutdown. And when it finally arrived on Thursday, it was also confusing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 119,000 jobs in September, well above expectations. But the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, its highest since October 2021.
Of course, these monthly reports are noisy, and it’s not unusual for their indicators to point in different directions. That’s why you want to look at the trends, and one important sector, both economically and politically, has consistently trended down over