New Jersey payrolls rise and unemployment falls to 4.2%
New Jersey employers added 14,900 jobs in September and the state's unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 4.2%, according to federal data released on Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate is now 1.3 percentage points below its level a year earlier, when it stood at 5.5%. September was the first month in almost four years that New Jersey's jobless rate did not exceed the national rate, which was also 4.2%.[S1]
Six of the state's nine private industry sectors gained jobs in September. Private education and health services added 7,200 positions, professional and business services added 7,100, and leisure and hospitality added 5,500. Manufacturing and other services each added 1,000 jobs, while construction added 500. Sectors that lost jobs included trade, transportation, and utilities, down 5,100; information, down 1,100; and financial activities, down 100. The public sector also shed 1,100 jobs.[S1]
Over the past 12 months, New Jersey payrolls have grown by a net 3,600 jobs to reach an employment level of 4,377,400. Only two sectors recorded net gains since September of 2025: private education and health services, up 30,000, and leisure and hospitality, up 2,400. Sectors with net losses over the year included trade, transportation, and utilities, down 11,200; information, down 4,500; government, down 3,300; construction, down 3,100; financial activities, down 2,800; manufacturing, down 1,600; professional and business services, down 1,400; and other services, down 900.[S1]
Figures issued by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development also restated the earlier August payroll estimate. What had initially been reported as a decline of 1,700 jobs is now shown as an increase of 1,200 jobs. The unemployment rate for August, previously put at 4.3%, was left unchanged by the revision.[S1]
India's unemployment rate holds at 5.0% as urban employment improves
For a second straight month, India's jobless rate came in at 5.0% in September, undershooting forecasts, helped by firmer employment readings in cities. The proportion of working-age people holding jobs was slightly higher than a year before, while urban employment and women's participation both showed improvement. Rural areas kept contributing, with their unemployment level below where it stood a year earlier.[S2]
Better urban employment numbers are welcome, yet they do not yet prove that India's labor market has shifted into a lasting, economy-wide upturn. Lately, rural areas have carried much of the labor market's strength, whereas urban employment has lagged. The urban worker population ratio climbed to its highest reading since October 2025, a hint that gains may be spreading past rural districts. Greater urban female labor-force participation is a further positive signal.[S2]
A higher participation rate can mean either that jobs are more plentiful or that more people have started hunting for work. If the labor force grows, employment has to rise fast enough to take in the new entrants before unemployment can fall. September's figures imply that this process is not yet finished in urban India, because urban female unemployment also rose year over year, a sign that more women are job-hunting without all of them being hired.[S2]
The headline jobless rate matched August's reading and was lower than the 5.2% recorded a year before. Labor-force participation held roughly steady at 55.5%, a 0.2 percentage point gain over the year. Rural participation climbed to 58.0% from 57.4%, while urban participation went to 50.7% from 50.4% in August yet stayed under its year-earlier figure. Overall female participation rose to 34.6% from 34.1%. Urban female participation reached 25.9% in September, up from 25.4% in August and the highest since October 2025. The overall worker population ratio increased to 52.7% from 52.4%, with urban employment improving for both genders.[S2]
