Unexpectedly dismal job growth last month cast a shadow on the nation’s economy, as a government report on Friday sent analysts scrambling for adjectives like “dreadful,” “a body blow” and “grim” to describe just how disappointing they found the latest employment figures.

The Labor Department found that the jobless rate held steady at 5.1 percent in September, but wage gains stalled, the labor force shrank and employers created many fewer positions than they had been averaging in recent months. While the latest report is only a snapshot of the economy and the weakness may ultimately prove fleeting, it made clear that ordinary workers are still failing to take home the kind of monetary rewards normally expected from a recovery that has being going on for more than six years.

The new estimates came just two weeks after the Federal Reserve decided that the economy’s advance remained too fragile to risk lifting interest rates from their near-zero level — even as it hinted an increase would come before the year’s end. Now, experts said, signs of a slowdown may well push any rise into 2016.

The odds of a move in December have “clearly diminished,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago. “There’s nothing good in this morning’s report.”