The economy created 254,000 jobs last month, far above forecasts of 150,000. Job creation was led by the usual industry suspects of health care (45,000), leisure and hospitality (78,000), and government (31,000). August’s job count was revised up by 17,000 while July’s was revised up by a very strong 55,000.
It’s hard to argue that over the past six months, job creation hasn’t been on an upward trajectory. But looking back over a longer period, using a three-month rolling average to smooth the data out, it’s clear that over the past few years, not just six months, job creation has been slowing.