Hiring Is Weaker Than Expected in September

Job growth didn't stall in September, but it barely inched forward. Friday's Labor Department report said employers added 29,000 jobs during the month, below economists' expectations of 84,000, reports CNBC. Unemployment rose to 4.2%, instead of holding steady at 4.1% as expected, per the Wall Street Journal. Because the report makes it less likely that the Federal Reserve will raise rates later this month, the markets are happy with the lackluster results: The Dow, for example, was up more than 400 points in the wake of the report's release, per CNBC.

The numbers speak to a labor market where mass layoffs aren't happening, but job opportunities are relatively scarce, per the Washington Post. The Journal describes it as being in "low-hire, low-fire" mode. "We're probably going to see more volatility in the labor market this year," economist Nicole Bachaud of the jobs site ZipRecruiter tells the Post. "There's just a lot of different factors impacting both worker movements and employer hiring expectations, and those are changing really, really quickly."