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Market Watch: America Created 336,000 Jobs In September

Employers in the United States added 336,000 workers to their payrolls in September, the Department of Labor said Friday.

The much-better-than-expected surge in employment puts pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike again at its two meeting that starts on the final day of October. The Fed decided at its last meeting in September to hold rates steady to see how earlier rate increases are affecting the economy. Prior to today, the market was pricing in around a 20 percent chance of a hike at the next meeting.

In the preliminary report for August, the Labor Department said that the economy added 187,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent. The change in employment for July was revised up by 79,000, from 157,000 to 236,000, and the change for August was revised up by 40,000, from 187,000 to 227,000. Those combine to raise employment by 119,000 higher than what had been reported.

Economists had forecast the economy would add around 160,000 jobs, with the range of forecasts in the Econoday survey running from 105,000 to 235,000. So the results were much higher than even the most bullish analysts had forecast.

The unemployment rate was expected to tick down to 3.7 percent from the 3.8 percent reported a month ago.

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