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# America added 29,000 jobs in September, and Wall Street took it as good news
- URL: https://www.sharespective.com/stories/america-added-29-000-jobs-september-2026-10-03/
- Published: 2026-10-02T21:15:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T19:28:38.000Z
- Description: American employers added 29,000 jobs in September, about a third of what economists expected. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Health care supplied 17,000 of the new jobs on its own.
- Author: Shaun Botha
- Tags: Economy, #story, #group-economy

American employers added 29,000 jobs in September, about a third of what economists expected. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Health care supplied 17,000 of the new jobs on its own.

**So why did stocks rally on a bad number?** The Federal Reserve has been leaning towards another rate rise, and a cooling job market weakens the case for one. By Friday's close, futures put the odds of a rise at the 27-28 October meeting at about one in five.

Pay helped too. Average hourly earnings rose 0.1% in the month and 3.0% over the year, against the 3.2% economists expected. Slower pay rises put less pressure on prices.

![Chart: US unemployment rose to 4.2% in September. The broader rate fell to 7.6%. Monthly US unemployment rates in percent, November 2025 to September 2026; October 2025 has no reading. The broader rate adds part-timers who want more hours.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/10/america-added-29-000-jobs-september-2026-10-03-chart.jpg)

This story’s chart of the day.

Bonds were harder to convince. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to about 5.18% just after the report, then climbed for the rest of the day. It settled near 5.28%, almost five basis points higher than it started.

Not so fast 

futures still price a rise by December, so Friday pushed the expected move back a meeting or so. Our read is that the job market is cooling faster than inflation is, and the Fed now has to decide which of the two worries it more.

[ This story ran in Good Bad News Saturday 3 October’s edition, with the market snapshot, the other two stories, the numbers and the week ahead. Read the whole edition → ](https://www.sharespective.com/sharespective-2026-10-03/)