--- title: Why a Strong Jobs Report Is Actually Bad News for Investors description: The U.S. jobs market is still going strong. Here's why that might be bad news for investors. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Investing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true editors: - name: Mallika Mitra role: Contributing Editor url: https://money.com/author/mallika-mitra/ bio: Mallika Mitra is a contributing editor for Money, based in Chicago. She has covered investing and retirement for seven years and her work has appeared in CNBC, Bloomberg, Kiplinger, AARP, Barron’s, Bankrate, The Daily Upside, ETF.com, The Bond Buyer, PLANADVISER, PLANSPONSOR and Investopedia. education: Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY Kalamazoo College at_money_since: 2020 articles: 395 covers: - Investing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - CNBC - Bloomberg - Kiplinger - Barron's - Bankrate - WGN-TV - CBS News Radio - This Morning With Gordon Deal - Everyone's Talkin' Money social: - https://twitter.com/mitra_mallika - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallika-mitra-4577a386/ published: '2022-10-07T17:20:35.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T13:49:25.000Z' section: Investing tags: - News - stocks word_count: 426 canonical: https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo collage of a concerned woman looking at her laptop with a negative stock market chart in the background](https://img.money.com/2022/10/News-Recent-Job-Reports-Bad-For-Investors.jpg?crop=0px%2C167px%2C1901px%2C1069px&quality=85) The United States added 263,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% from 3.7% in August, according to [data](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf) released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s a sign that the labor market is still strong, but it might actually be [bad news](https://money.com/good-economic-news-bad-stock-market/) for investors. The reason for that paradox? Persistently high [inflation](https://money.com/inflation-food-rent-price-increase/) that’s causing [financial hardship](https://money.com/inflation-top-concern-america-poll/) for millions of families and businesses across the country, and the Federal Reserve’s ongoing battle to curb it. The Fed is aggressively raising interest rates in order to [cool the economy](https://money.com/fed-interest-rate-hike-september-2022/) and slow down that price growth. But when interest rates rise, the price of assets trading on public markets — like [stocks](https://money.com/how-to-buy-stocks/), [bonds](https://money.com/buying-bonds-great-investing-move/), [cryptocurrencies](https://money.com/what-is-cryptocurrency/) and commodities — [tend to fall](https://money.com/inflation-affecting-stock-market-2022/). So it's no wonder investors haven’t been thrilled to see good news about the jobs market lately. A hot labor market means the Fed is likely to keep raising rates. “Even as the US employment situation has outperformed expectations this year by an unprecedented margin, stocks haven’t liked it one bit,” analysts from Bespoke Investment Group wrote Friday. They point out that the [S&P 500](https://money.com/how-to-invest-in-sp500/) finished the day lower on six of the seven occasions where monthly jobs data came in better than expected. Stocks fell on Friday as investors digested the September jobs report. ## Jobs growth is slowing, but not by much Friday’s data did bring a silver lining for investors: Job growth is slowing down. Employers added the fewest jobs in September that they have in any month since the spring of 2021 and September was the second month in a row of declining growth. Unfortunately for investors, that trend probably isn’t enough to prompt the Fed to change course on interest rates — at least in the near-term. “We would need to see several months of a weakening employment picture in order for the Fed to act,” Russell Evans, chief investment officer at Los Angeles-based Avitas Wealth Management, said via written commentary shared with Money Friday. “The Fed is very focused on inflation and that may mean that jobs are collateral damage.” That damage could be substantial. In a recent [interview](https://www.ft.com/content/20117143-2084-4ac1-98a5-5c48fae7fc23#:~:text=It%20continues%20to%20be%20my%20view%20that%20we%20are%20unlikely%20to%20achieve%20inflation%20stability%20without%20a%20recession%20of%20a%20magnitude%20that%20would%20take%20unemployment%20towards%20the%206%20per%20cent%20range) with the *Financial Times*, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted that it will take a recession that raises the unemployment rate closer to 6% to bring inflation under control. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Investing", "item": "https://money.com/investing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Investors", "item": "https://money.com/investors/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Why a Strong Jobs Report Is Actually Bad News for Investors" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/", "name": "Why a Strong Jobs Report Is Actually Bad News for Investors", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-10-07T17:20:35.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/what-september-jobs-means-for-stocks/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T13:49:25.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Why a Strong Jobs Report Is Actually Bad News for Investors", "articleSection": "Investing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/10/News-Recent-Job-Reports-Bad-For-Investors.jpg?crop=0px%2C167px%2C1901px%2C1069px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Recent-Job-Reports-Bad-For-Investors" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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