Jobs growth stalls — and that could be good news for mortgage rates

Job growth in the U.S. slowed down in September, with nonfarm payroll jobs jumping just 29,000 from a month prior, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to this, data for the prior two months was revised down by 60,000 jobs. September also saw the unemployment rate tick up slightly to 4.2% with 7.1 million people unemployed. The unemployment rate has stayed between 4.1% and 4.3% since March. According to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) chief economist Lawrence Yun, the slight rise in the unemployment rate was for a good reason. “More Americans are searching for a job rather than being out of the labor force,” Yun said in a statement. “To be counted in the statistics, you must be looking for a job, and nearly 700,000 more entered the job market. That growth in the labor supply has slowed wage growth to 3.1%, the slowest rise in 5 years.” Looking at the data as a whole, Sam Williamson, a senior economist at First American, said it looks like the labor market is settling back into low-hire, low-fire mode, which should ease concerns that the uptick in jobs in August was a sign of an accelerating job market. “That could cool ex...