September's jobs report was surprisingly strong, and the details show that the growth came from many different areas of the economy.
The largest contributions came from leisure and hospitality, with 78,000 new jobs, and healthcare and social assistance, with 71,700. If one were to add private education to the healthcare group, as some economists do, that category would have been the biggest growth area of the month.
The number of jobs in the hospitality, catering and catering industries increased by 69,000. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is a notable increase from the average monthly increase of 14,000 last year.
Government and construction were also bright spots, adding 31,000 and 25,000 jobs respectively. Professional and business services jobs increased by 17,000, a notable change for an industry that had shed jobs in recent months.
LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach said in a note to clients that the report showed “fairly broad-based” job growth, but emphasized that the share of workers holding multiple jobs rose 5.3%.
“This solid report increases the likelihood that the economy will continue to grow above trend next quarter. … The only warning may be the increase in the number of multi-employees,” Roach said.
Two key areas that lost jobs last month were manufacturing and transportation and warehousing, although each category fell by fewer than 10,000 jobs.
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