The US jobs machine shifted into higher gear in September, pushing the unemployment rate down to the lowest level in six years.
In a boost for President Barack Obama a month before midterm congressional elections, the Labor Department has reported that the economy pumped out 248,000 net new positions last month, sending the jobless rate down to 5.9 per cent.
Together with revisions from previous months, this eased concerns about a late-summer slump in job creation.
The solid run so far this year - an average of 227,000 jobs each month - brought the number of officially unemployed down to 9.3 million, the fewest since July 2008.
But the data showed continued weakness in wages, and still-large numbers of long-term unemployed, part-time workers and labour market dropouts.
That could challenge Obama's bid to highlight his stewardship of the economy ahead of the November midterm congressional elections.
The Democrats are battling to prevent Republicans from seizing control of both houses of Congress, and the president hit the campaign trail in the week to promote his economic record.
Speaking in Indiana on Friday, he boasted that since the 2008-09 recession, "the US has put more folks back to work than Europe, Japan, and all other advanced economies combined".
"Over the past 55 months our businesses have now created 10.3 million new jobs," he said.
"It has got a little bit to do with some decisions we made quite early on in my administration."
September job creation was strongest in the restaurant sector, health care, food and beverage, and administrative services, with modest additions in construction and government.
But the number of those who have dropped out of the labour market rose by 315,000, almost as much as the fall in the number of unemployed.
The participation rate fell to a new low of 62.7 per cent, far below the 66 per cent level before the recession.
Weekly wages have risen just over two per cent a year, barely ahead of inflation.
"Much of the decline in the unemployment rate is due to people leaving the labour force," said Dean Baker at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.
"While the labour market is improving, it still has a long way to go before reaching full employment," he said.
Chris Williamson of economic consultancy Markit said policy makers would remain bothered by stagnant pay cheques.
"Without substantially higher wage growth, the fear is that households will pull back on consumption if interest rates and borrowing costs start rising."
That adds little fresh pressure on the Federal Reserve, which has focused on cutting joblessness, to move to tighten monetary policy.
Share
