U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in September, continuing a gradual cooling pattern in the labor market as high inflation and rising interest rates weighed on the economy.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% from 3.7% in August, the Labor Department said Friday, matching a half-century low that was last reached in July, a reflection of people leaving the job market. Wages rose 5.0% in September from the same month a year earlier, a slower pace than August’s 5.2% annual rate.