The unemployment rate for September was unchanged from August, 9.1 percent.
With President Obama continuing to press a balky Congress to pass his jobs bill, the Labor Department’s monthly snapshot highlighted the challenges for an administration faced with an economy that has struggled to deliver significant employment growth since the recovery started more than two years ago.
September’s number of new jobs was well more than analysts had expected — one consensus predicted a gain of 55,000 jobs — and the Labor Department also revised the August figure of zero job growth to a gain of 57,000 jobs.
Still, the report came on the heels of disappointing data about consumer confidence and the housing market. Economists have also grown increasingly concerned about a ballooning European debt crisis that could send ripples across the Atlantic.
In a news conference on Thursday, the president urged Congress to act to prevent weaker growth and more job losses. “There are too many people hurting in this country for us to do nothing,” Mr. Obama said. “And the economy is just too fragile for us to let politics get in the way of action.”
The private sector added 137,000 jobs in September, although that included about 45,000 Verizon workers who had been on strike during August and returned to work by September. As has been the case throughout most of the downturn and tepid recovery, health care and education were among the strongest sectors, adding 45,000 jobs in September.
The public sector was the weakest link, with local government shedding 35,000 jobs, including 24,400 in public education. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that with local budgets under such tight constraints, school districts were not hiring as many new teachers and classroom aides as they had in the past. She said that about 300,000 education jobs have been lost since 2008 and projected a further 280,000 job losses due to state and local budget cuts.
Over all, there were still 14 million people out of work, 6.2 million of whom have been on the job hunt for six months or more, the report showed. Including those who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment and those who are too discouraged to look for work anymore, the total unemployment rate rose to 16.5 percent in September.
Despite all the talk of another recession, some recent economic indicators actually paint a slightly better picture of the economy. Auto sales rose close to 10 percent in September to their highest level in five months, and sales at chain stores also rose last month. But the focus of political attention remains job growth.
Economists suggested that employers still have little incentive to add many jobs. “Given the complete lack of clarity as to what the economic outlook will be and the uncertainty about what’s going on in Europe and the political paralysis in Washington,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group, “there is not much of an economic justification for employers to suddenly ramp up hiring.”
Other precursors of future hiring, such as temporary employment, showed modest improvement. Temporary help services added just 19,400 jobs in September. And the average weekly hours worked, which tend to rise before companies start hiring again, rose slightly, as did average weekly earnings.
Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics, a consulting firm, said he supported the president’s jobs plan and estimated that it could create about 500,000 to 600,000 new jobs. But he said that even companies that are profitable are hesitant to part with their cash to hire people.
“C.E.O.’s are paid to grow shareholder value,” said. “They are not paid to hire people if demand isn’t there and if they can substitute machines for people. That’s a no-brainer for the people who run companies.”
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