US employers hired 96,000 extra workers in September, far fewer than expected, the US government said today in the last major jobs report before the November presidential election.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.4%, the Labour Department said.
Jobs growth in the hurricane-battered month fell short of the 150,000 broadly expected by analysts, providing ammunition for Democratic challenger John Kerry in his attack on President George W Bush's jobs record.
Bush can take comfort, however, from a Labour Department estimate that it may revise upwards the number of jobs created in the year to March 2004 by 236,000, improving his record.
After Bush took office, the US lost 2.6 million jobs up to August 2003. Since then, it has gained 1.8 million.
In September alone, three hurricanes struck the US - Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.
'At the national level, the severe weather appears to have held down employment growth but not enough to change materially the bureau's assessment of the employment situation in September,' the Labour Department said.
A breakdown showed that goods producing industries lost 13,000 jobs, including a loss of 18,000 factory jobs but a gain of 4,000 in building.
Services industries churned out 109,000 extra jobs, including a gain of 37,000 jobs in government, 34,000 in professional and business services, 13,000 in leisure and hospitality and 8,000 in education and health. Retailers cut 15,000.
Average weekly earnings rose by $1.01 to $533.36 while the number of hours worked in a week in the private sector was unchanged at 33.8.
The employment numbers appeared to fit with an Institute for Supply Management survey this week indicating the services sector grew at a slower pace in September as hurricanes and high energy prices inflicted pain.
