The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.2 percent according to the September jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Oct. 22.
September’s job report would have come out at the beginning of October, but was delayed due to the 16-day shutdown of the federal government.
Employers added 148,000 jobs in September, which is fewer than the 193,000 jobs added in August. Surveys reveal that 73,000 people were added to the labor force and 133,000 people said they got jobs, according to CNN.
Forbes reports that 126,000 of the jobs added to the economy this month were from the private-sector.
“In contrast to recent months, the drop in the main unemployment rate was almost totally for positive reasons,” said Phil Izzo, lead editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog. “The number of people employed jumped by about 133,000, while the number of people who said they were unemployed dropped by 61,000.”
According to CNN, 11.3 million people in America are still jobless today and looking for a job.
CNN Money reported on the future agenda of the Federal Reserve.
“The (Federal Reserve) meets next week to reevaluate its plan for winding down its bond-buying program,” said Annalyn Kurtz, writer for CNN Money. “But independent economists expect policymakers will want to see more data on how the shutdown impacted the economy before they start cutting back on the $85 billion a month in bond purchases.”
The economic impact of the government shutdown is expected to be revealed in the October jobs report, which will be delayed as well and released Nov. 8.
Forbes speculated on how important this jobs report is to the economy due to its lateness.
“Anticipation for the report was high,” said Samantha Sharf, markets reporter for Forbes. “CNBC even ran a jobs report count down this morning, but many people also debated how meaningful the numbers really are two weeks late. The delay in reporting, however, does not mean the numbers are inaccurate. Data was largely collected before the shutdown.”
Economists’ opinions on whether this jobs report bodes well or unwell for the economy are mixed. The unemployment rate is the lowest since November 2008, but there are still millions of Americans who are unemployed and looking for jobs.