Job growth surged in September

The labor market added 336,000 nonfarm payrolls, more than the forecast. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%.

• The US added 336,000 jobs in September, greater than job growth in August. 
• The unemployment rate was 3.8% again.
• Workers still have bargaining power but not like before, an economist recently told Insider.

The US unemployment rate didn't budge in September and more jobs were added than in August.

New labor force participation data, employment for different industries, average hourly earnings, and other US labor market figures were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

The US added 336,000 jobs in September based on nonfarm payroll employment growth, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Friday. That's way higher than the 170,000 gain expected and more than August's revised growth of 227,000. August's preliminary estimate was 187,000, per the report published at the start of September.

July's payroll gain was revised from 157,000 to 236,000, per the latest news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

After an increase in the unemployment rate in August as more people entered the labor force, the unemployment rate was 3.8% again in September. That's higher than the forecast of 3.7%.

Data published on Tuesday showed 3.6 million quits in August, and job openings climbed in August to 9.6 million. Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, is one workplace expert that cautioned about the monthly increase in openings.

"Job openings spiked in August, but the underlying reality is more likely one of resilience rather than resurgence," Bunker wrote in a post about the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Bunker said in that post a "large majority of the almost 700,000 increase in job openings came from just one industry—professional and business services—and is likely noisy."

Overall, workers still have some power in the cooler labor market, LinkedIn's chief economist Karin Kimbrough recently told Insider.

"Right now, I think a lot of workers are still getting accustomed to the fact that the terms they could demand a year and a half ago are not the terms they can demand now," Kimbrough said.

Kimbrough said there's rebalancing occurring, but the "balance is swinging a little bit more towards employers."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.