The unemployment rate fell to a nearly five-decade low in September.
Employers added 134,000 jobs in September, the slowest pace of growth in a year, and wage growth cooled slightly from August.
By nearly any measure, today’s labor market is the strongest since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. African-Americans, Latinos and other minority groups are experiencing some of their lowest rates of joblessness on record.
The unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, the lowest since 1969.
■ Average earnings rose by 8 cents an hour and are up 2.8 percent over the past year.
■ Hiring figures for July and August were revised up by a combined 87,000 jobs.
Faster wage growth would be good news for workers, it could worry policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who are watching for signs that the economy is “overheating” — If those concerns mount, the Fed might raise interest rates more quickly than planned.