Washington More jobs than expected were created on the US labor market in September. Last month, 263,000 new jobs were added, as the government announced in Washington on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected just 250,000, down from 315,000 in August. The separately determined unemployment rate surprisingly fell to 3.5 from the previous 3.7 percent.
The Federal Reserve, which is supposed to promote full employment and stable prices, wants to contain escalating inflation and at the same time cool down the hot labor market. However, little of this can be seen in the previous labor market statistics.
The Fed is therefore driving up the key interest rate in unusually large steps. It has already raised the interest rate level by three quarters of a percentage point three times in a row – most recently to the range of 3.00 to 3.25 percent.