The unemployment rate posted a larger-than-expected drop, falling to a seven-year low of 5.1% in August, down from 5.3% the previous month. “Instead, we had something in the middle”, he said. If the Fed does raise the interest rate in September, potentially, the bulls could be seen running for cover and the bears would use the opportunity to gain a foothold.

But Lacker said the healing in the job market needed for a hike have already materialized, even if the jobs report disappointed. After the earlier global equities selloff, financial markets in the country were forced to scale back their bets on a rate hike in August.

If you were looking for clarity on what the US Federal Reserve Bank will do later this month with regard to raising interest rates, you lost. These numbers might satisfy Fed as well, opine economists.

“Job growth in August was somewhat disappointing… but the upward revisions to June and July suggest it is too early to conclude that the USA economy is experiencing a moderation in job growth“, Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic and labor research at The Conference Board.

In recent years, payroll figures for August were frequently revised up sharply after initial weak readings.

Public education accounted for more than 18 percent of the jobs added in August. A rising dollar and wobbly global economy all hints towards being more cautious before raising the interest rates.

The Labor Department uses the week that includes the 12th day of the month as the reference week for its employment surveys. The participation rate hasn’t changed for the past three months and is now roughly where it was 1977. Hourly earnings have increased 2.2 percent over the year, according to the BLS.

“Market participants may believe the slowing of job gains in August is enough to prevent a firming of Fed policy to 0.25 percent in September, but the Fed may not agree”, said Jason Schenker at Prestige Economics.

Education and health services posted strong gains, with healthcare and social assistance adding 56,400 jobs. Since reaching a peak in December 2014, mining employment has declined by 90,000. Although this is better than expected it is still not in the 3.5 percent growth that the Federal Reserve is hoping for. “And the number of people who are working part-time, but would like full-time work, is more than six million”.

Their share of job creation almost doubled from 27.1 percent in July, reflecting not just the start of the school year but also weaknesses in other sectors of the economy where foreign customers and capital matter more.