2026 Jobs Reports: 29,000 Added in September
Payroll and unemployment figures as published in each month's Fiscal Lab jobs report.
Each number below is the figure in that month's Fiscal Lab report. Later reports revised some earlier payroll estimates. Read the linked page for the vintage it discusses.
- May 2026: nonfarm payrolls grew by 172,000, above the consensus forecast of 88,000. Private payrolls increased by 120,000.
- June 2026: nonfarm employment rose by 57,000. Forecasts had been above 100,000, and Revelio Labs had forecast 258,800. The unemployment rate fell from the May estimate of 4.3% to 4.2%.
- July 2026: the first closing showed total nonfarm payrolls down 23,000. The August report later describes a revision of July from -23,000 to 21,000. The September report describes a further revision of July from 21,000 to -10,000.
- August 2026: payrolls rose by 162,000, against about 55,000 expected. Unemployment held at 4.1%. Manufacturing employment had added 56,000 jobs that year, as of this report.
- September 2026: payrolls rose by 29,000, short of 84,000 expected. Unemployment edged up to 4.2%. The private sector added 46,000 jobs and government declined by 17,000. Labor force participation rose from 61.6% to 61.8%. BLS revised August from 162,000 to 133,000 in this report.
A separate note, Understanding Economic Bifurcation, says that from 2019 to 2022 college-degree incomes grew 6%, homeowner incomes grew 5%, and renter incomes grew 2%.