Small businesses added 81,000 while medium-sized firms gained 64,000, with large companies generating just 17,000 for the the month, the report from ADP and Macroeconomic Advisors said.

Services firms were responsible for 144,000 of the jobs, while manufacturing generated just 4,000 new positions. The service total was off from the 175,000 increase in August.

Construction jobs jumped, with the 10,000 gain the biggest since March. Financial services also added 7,000.

But with the unemployment ratemired at 8.1 percent and the labor force participation rate, which measures the employed as well as those looking for jobs, at a 31-year low, the story remained the same for the lackluster jobs market.

"Jobs growth of 130,000 a month or so would keep the unemployment rate constant. Plus or minus 30 or 40,000 above or below that is essentially noise," Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors, told CNBC. "In order to push the unemployment rate down convincingly, we've got to have faster growth than we've been seeing and we just haven't seen that for the better part of this recovery."