After a 43-day government shutdown-induced delay, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is slowly returning to its regular programming.

On Thursday, the BLS released the long-awaited September jobs data, originally scheduled to publish on Oct. 3, but stalled due to the government shutdown. While the data is nearly two months old, it still is useful for assessing the broader context of the labor market, some leading economists say.

Step back in time. Private non-farm employers added 119,000 jobs in September, significantly beating the Dow Jones estimate of 50,000. September, based on initial estimates, marked an uptick in hiring following a sharp cooldown in job growth earlier this summer. By comparison, the BLS revised job gains for July and August down by 33,000 for both months, with July adding just 72,000 jobs and August losing 4,000.

“What we see in today’s report, adding 119,000 jobs, says that maybe things are holding up a little better than some of the previous reports were telling us,” said Cory Stahle, a senior economist at Indeed. At the same time, job gains have been smaller this year than in recent years, he noted. For example, employers added 240,000 jobs in September 2024.

Despite the strong top-line number, a more granular look at job gains by industry and employment statistics shared in the household survey shows a mixed bag for the US labor market in September.

By industry, healthcare led in job growth again, adding 43,000 positions in September, with the most gains in ambulatory services and hospitals. That was followed by food services, which added 37,000 jobs, and individual and family services—a subsector of social assistance—which added nearly 20,000.

At the same time, employment in transportation and warehousing fell by 25,000, primarily due to job losses in warehousing and storage, and in couriers and messenger services. Professional and business services followed, adding 20,000 fewer jobs in September, largely driven by reductions in administrative and support services. Employment in the federal government also fell by 3,000 that month, and has declined by 97,000 jobs since January.

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