Business
US adds more jobs than expected in September
Natalie ShermanBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesThe first official data in weeks on the US job market is out, and it showed a surprising pick-up in hiring after a lacklustre summer.
Employers added 119,000 jobs in September, more than double what many analysts had expected, but the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% to 4.4%, the Labor Department figures showed.
The US government shutdown, which ended last week after more than a month, had delayed publication of the figures for nearly seven weeks, leaving policymakers guessing about the state of the job market at a delicate moment.
Job growth has still barely budged since April, raising pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates to support the economy.
But policymakers at the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, have been divided about the need for further interest rate cuts. In addition to the health of the job market, they are also monitoring price inflation that ticked up to 3% in September, above the 2% rate the bank wants to see.
Looming over the debate are questions like whether artificial intelligence (AI) will dampen demand for workers over the long term and how a crackdown on immigration is changing labour supply and demand.
Businesses are also wrestling with cutbacks to government spending, new tariff costs and uncertain consumer demand.
A private report this month by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found the number of job cuts in October hit the highest number for the month since 2003, as high-profile companies including Amazon, Target and UPS announced reductions.
On Thursday, telecoms giant Verizon also said it was cutting more than 13,000 jobs, citing in part “changes in technology and in the economy” for the move.
The announcements have raised concerns about cracks in what has been seen as a “low-hire, low-fire” job market.
But evidence of wider deterioration has been elusive, as claims for unemployment benefits remain stable.
Health care firms, restaurants and bars led the job gains in September, while transportation and warehousing firms, manufacturers and the government shed jobs.
“The September jobs report may be backward looking but offers reassurance that the labour market wasn’t crumbling before the government shutdown,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics.
However, she noted noting that the data from October is likely to be weaker, due to government layoffs.
Limited hiring has already prompted the ranks of people without work more than six months to swell this year, though their numbers dipped a bit in September.
Unusually, the strains have been particularly pronounced among those with college degrees. The unemployment rate for that group rose to 2.8% in September, up from from 2.3% a year earlier.
“It’s been pretty challenging,” said Mason Leposavic, who has applied to thousands of jobs since graduating in May 2024 from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mason LeposavicWhile the 24-year-old did eventually find part-time work as a bartender, he has failed to find the kind of office role he hoped for in sales, tech or similar sectors.
He said the search had been dispiriting – especially when he saw firms repeatedly re-post openings he had been rejected from for lack of experience – and he was not optimistic it would improve soon.
He is now without work again after switching states to move back in with his mother in Arizona in an attempt to save money.
“I didn’t realise how hard it would be,” he said. “I think everything really changed after AI, especially in the tech industry.”
Information about the situation has been clouded by the government shutdown, which has limited incoming economic data in recent weeks.
Thursday’s report is the last official release on the job market before the Fed’s next meeting in December.
While September’s job gains were stronger than expected, the report also showed job growth in July and August was lower than previously estimated. The US added just 72,000 jobs in July and shed 4,000 positions in August.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its next report on the November job market in mid-December, leaving a gap in some data for October.
Analysts said the inconclusive nature of the latest figures was likely to bolster the case for the Fed to move cautiously and hold off on cutting in December.
“The Federal Reserve is still driving in a fog,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist for B Riley Wealth. “As Chair Powell said – ‘When you are driving in a fog, you slow down.'”
Executives from companies such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Chipotle have warned in recent weeks that lower-income households are tightening spending as rising prices put pressure on their budgets and confidence in the job market sinks.
But a strong stock market, bolstered by upbeat reports from many companies, has helped to sustain higher earners.
The Fed has cut its key interest rate twice since September, leaving it in a range of 3.75%-4%, its lowest level in three years.
But Fed chairman Jerome Powell warned last month that another reduction was “far from” a foregone conclusion in December.
At the time he offered reassurance about the job market, saying the mix of data suggested “that you’re seeing maybe continued very gradual cooling, but nothing more than that”.
One of Britain’s most prolific rail fare dodgers could face jail after admitting dozens of travel offences.
Charles Brohiri, 29, pleaded guilty to travelling without buying a ticket a total of 112 times over a two-year period, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
He could be ordered to pay more than £18,000 in unpaid fares and legal costs, the court was told.
He will be sentenced next month.
District Judge Nina Tempia warned Brohiri “could face a custodial sentence because of the number of offences he has committed”.
He pleaded guilty to 76 offences on Thursday.
It came after he was convicted in his absence of 36 charges at a previous hearing.
During Thursday’s hearing, Judge Tempia dismissed a bid by Brohiri’s lawyers to have the 36 convictions overturned.
They had argued the prosecutions were unlawful because they had not been brought by a qualified legal professional.
But Judge Tempia rejected the argument, saying there had been “no abuse of this court’s process”.
JSW Jetour T2 Launch: JSW Motors Limited, the passenger vehicle arm of the JSW Group, is reportedly preparing to enter the Indian car market this year. It has partnered with Jetour, a China-based automotive brand owned by Chery Automobile, and the Jetour T2 SUV could be the company’s first product, according to the reports.
Media reports suggest that the launch will happen independently and not under the JSW MG Motor India joint venture. The SUV will wear a JSW badge and name, instead of the Jetour branding. The upcoming SUV will be assembled at JSW’s upcoming greenfield manufacturing facility in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.
According to the reports, the company plans to have the vehicle on sale by the third quarter of this year. With this move, JSW aims to establish itself as a standalone carmaker in India.
Expected Powertrain
The SUV is likely to arrive with a 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid setup. Internationally, this hybrid powertrain is offered with both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive options. It is still unclear which version will be introduced in India.
Design
In terms of design, the T2 is a large and rugged-looking SUV. It has a boxy and upright stance, similar to vehicles like the Land Rover Defender. Despite its tough appearance, it uses a monocoque chassis instead of a ladder-frame construction.
Size
The SUV measures around 4.7 metres in length and nearly 2 metres in width. This makes it larger than the Tata Safari, even though it is a five-seater. A longer 7-seat version is also sold in some markets.
Price
Pricing details for India are yet to be announced. For reference, the front-wheel-drive five-seat T2 i-DM is priced at AED 1,44,000 (around Rs 35 lakh) in the UAE.
Jetour
Jetour is a brand owned by Chinese automaker Chery. Launched in 2018, it focuses mainly on SUVs and is present in markets across China, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
John Swinney has been pressed over whether this week’s Scottish Budget gives some workers the “smallest tax cut in history” – with Tory leader Russell Findlay branding the reduction “miserly” and “insulting”.
The Scottish Conservative leader challenged the First Minister after Tuesday’s Holyrood Budget effectively cut taxes for lower earners, by increasing the threshold for the basic and intermediate bands of income tax.
But Mr Findlay said that would leave workers at most £31.75 a year better off – saying this amounts to a saving of just £61p a week
“That wouldn’t even buy you a bag of peanuts,” the Scottish Tory leader said.
“John Swinney’s Budget might even have broken a world record, because a Scottish Government tax adviser says it ‘maybe the smallest tax cut in history’.”
Raising the “miserly cut” at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Findlay demanded to know if the SNP leader believed his “insulting tax cut will actually help Scotland’s struggling households”.
The attack came as the Tory accused the SNP government of increasing taxes on higher earners, with its freeze on higher income tax thresholds, which will pull more Scots into these brackets.
This is needed to pay for the “SNP’s out of control, unaffordable benefits bill”, the Conservative added.
Mr Findlay said: “The Scottish Conservatives will not back and cannot back a Budget that does nothing to help Scotland’s workers and businesses.
“It hammers people with higher taxes to fund a bloated benefits system.”
Hitting out at Labour – whose leader Anas Sarwar has already declared they will not block the government’s Budget – Mr Findlay said: “It is absolutely mind-blowing that Labour and other so-called opposition parties will let this SNP boorach of a budget pass.
“Don’t the people of Scotland deserve lower taxes, fairer benefits and a government focused on economic growth?”
Mr Swinney said the Budget “delivers on the priorities of the people of Scotland” by “strengthening our National Health Service and supporting people and businesses with the challenges of the cost of living”.
He insisted income tax decisions in the Budget would mean that in 2026-27 “55% of Scottish taxpayers are now expected to pay less income tax than if they lived in England”.
The First Minister went on to say that showed “the people of Scotland have a Government that is on their side”.
Referring to polls putting his party on course to win the Holyrood elections in May, the SNP leader added that “all the current indications show the people of Scotland want to have this Government here for the long term”.
Benefits funding is “keeping children out of poverty”, he told MSPs, adding the Budget contained a “range of measures” that would build on existing support.
The First Minister said: “What that is a demonstration of is a Government that is on the side of the people of Scotland and I am proud of the measures we set out in the Budget on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile he said the Tories wanted to make tax cuts that would cost £1 billion, with “not a scrap of detail about how that would be delivered”.
With the weekly leaders’ question time clash coming less than 48 hours after the draft 2026-27 Budget was unveiled, the First Minister also faced questions from Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar, who insisted that the proposals “lacks ambition for Scotland”.
Pressing his SNP rival, the Scottish Labour leader said: “While he brags about his £6 a year tax cut for the lowest paid, one million Scots including nurses, teachers and police officers face being forced to pay more.
“Even his own tax adviser says this is a political stunt. So why does John Swinney believe that someone earning £33,500 has the broadest shoulders and therefore should pay more tax in Scotland?”
Mr Swinney, however, said that many public sector workers would be better off in Scotland.
He told the Scottish Labour leader: “A band six nurse at the bottom of the scale will take home an additional £1,994 after tax compared to the same band in England.
“A qualified teacher at the bottom of the band will take home £6,365 more after tax in Scotland than the equivalent in England. There are the facts for Mr Sarwar.”
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