The economy added a whopping 254,000 jobs last month — blowing past forecasts that predicted a modest rise and diminishing Wall Street’s hopes of another big rate cut from the Federal Reserve next month.
The Labor Department, whose report appeared to lessen concerns that the US jobs market could be in trouble, also said the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% — a decline from 4.2% in the previous month — and that hourly earnings rose 4% from a year earlier.
Consensus estimates had the number of jobs created last month at 150,000 — up from the 142,000 jobs that were reported in August.
The unemployment rate in August declined slightly to 4.2% after unexpectedly rising to 4.3% in July.
The boffo jobs numbers prompted former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to declare on social media that the Federal Reserve’s decision last month to slash rates by half a percentage point was “a mistake,” and that the Fed should exercise “caution in rate cutting” in what is currently a “high neutral rate environment.”
“With the benefit of hindsight, the 50 basis point cut in September was a mistake though not one of great consequence,” Summers wrote in a post on X.
Stocks soared on Friday with the Dow rising nearly 350 points, or 0.8%, to close at record of 42,352.75. All three indexes posted weekly gains for the fourth straight week.
Fed Chair Jerome…
