The US economy added 661,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate has fallen to 7.9 percent, according to the final monthly employment report before the election.
With September's hiring gain, the US economy has recovered only slightly more than half the 22 million jobs that were wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
The roughly 10 million jobs that remain lost exceed the number that the nation shed during the entire 2008-2009 Great Recession.
In the last monthly employment report before the November 3 presidential election, the Labor Department said on Friday that the unemployment rate for September fell to 7.9 percent, down from 8.4 percent in August.
Since April, the jobless rate has tumbled from a peak of 14.7 percent.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent in September from 8.4 percent in August
The unemployment rate is down from a high of 14.7 percent in April
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 661,000 jobs last month after advancing 1.489 million in August.
Economists had been predicting that 850,000 jobs were created in September.
Friday's numbers offers voters a final look at the most important barometer of the US economy prior to the election.
The data is sure to become a political football in the race for the White House for which the economic blow from the pandemic has been a top issue.
For his part, President Donald Trump is likely to tout the fifth straight month of job gains and lower unemployment as a sign of progress for an economy that plunged into recession in February.
September's employment gains, however, are the smallest since the jobs recovery started in May, indicating slower growth heading into the fourth quarter.
In the last monthly employment report before the November 3 presidential election, the Labor Department on Friday said nonfarm payrolls increased by 661,000 jobs last month after advancing 1.489 million in August
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