Pre-Election Jobs Report

Payroll growth was disappointing for a second straight month in September as employers added 156,000 jobs, which raised questions about the health of an economy that was expected to perk up from a prolonged slump in the second half of the year.

The unemployment rate rose to 5% from 4.9%, the Labor Department said Friday, as a rise in employment was more than offset by a sharp increase in the labor force, or the number of Americans working and looking for jobs.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 172,000 payroll...

Amid a presidential campaign marked by fears about the country’s economic future, the American jobs machine keeps chugging.

Employers added 156,000 positions in September, the Labor Department said on Friday, enough to accommodate new entrants to the labor force and entice back workers who dropped out after the Great Recession. The unemployment rate, which had been stuck at 4.9 percent since spring, ticked up slightly to 5 percent, but that was mostly because more people were drawn into the labor force by evidence that hiring is still going strong.

For...