The U.S. economy added 119,000 jobs in September 2025 while unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.4%, according to the September jobs report release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday.

The September employment report, delayed by more than six weeks due to a federal government shutdown, revealed ongoing weakness across several sectors, with job losses in transportation and warehousing and continued declines in federal government employment offsetting gains in healthcare, food services, and social assistance.

Health care led job creation in September with 43,000 new positions, matching its 12-month average. Ambulatory health care services added 23,000 jobs, while hospitals contributed 16,000. Food services and drinking places posted solid gains of 37,000 positions, and social assistance added 14,000 jobs, driven primarily by growth in individual and family services.

Transportation and warehousing shed 25,000 jobs, with warehousing and storage down 11,000 and couriers and messengers losing 7,000 positions. Federal government employment declined by 3,000 and is now down 97,000 jobs since peaking in January 2025, even as employees on paid leave or receiving severance are still counted as employed.

Most other major industries—including construction, manufacturing, retail trade, information, financial activities, professional and business services, and other services—showed little or no employment change during the month.

The September report included significant downward revisions to employment figures for July and August, indicating the labor market was even softer than initially reported. August’s job gains were revised down by 26,000, from an initial estimate of 22,000 to a loss of 4,000 jobs—the first monthly decline since late 2020. July’s figure was also revised down by 7,000, from 79,000 to 72,000. Combined, these revisions mean employment in July and August was 33,000 lower than previously reported.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in September, with 7.6 million people unemployed—both higher than the 4.1% rate and 6.9 million unemployed a year earlier. Among major demographic groups, unemployment rates for adult women increased to 4.2% and for Asians to 4.4%. Jobless rates for adult men (4.0%), teenagers (13.2%), Whites (3.8%), Blacks (7.5%), and Hispanics (5.5%) showed little change.

Long-term unemployment—those jobless for 27 weeks or more—held steady at 1.8 million, accounting for 23.6% of all unemployed individuals. The labor force participation rate remained at 62.4%, unchanged from a year earlier, while the employment-population ratio was 59.7%, down 0.4 percentage points from September 2024.

The number of people not in the labor force who want a job decreased by 421,000 to 5.9 million. Part-time employment remained essentially flat at 4.6 million.

Average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees rose by 9 cents, or 0.2%, to $36.67 in September. Over the past year, wages have increased 3.8%, a modest acceleration from the 3.7% annual growth reported in August. Production and nonsupervisory employees saw hourly earnings increase by 8 cents to $31.53.

The average workweek for all private employees remained unchanged at 34.2 hours. In manufacturing, the workweek held at 39.9 hours with 2.9 hours of overtime.

As a consequence of the shutdown, the BLS will not publish an October 2025 employment report.