The U.S. economy added 134,000 nonfarm jobs in September, roughly half the gain seen in August but still enough to bring the unemployment rate down to a 49-year low of 3.7 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. The number of new jobs fell short of expectations. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a gain of 168,000.

Average hourly wages rose by 0.3 percent to $27.24 an hour, with the 12-month rate for wage growth slowing to 2.8 percent from 2.9 percent the previous month, which was a nine-year high. The Labor Department also revised the employment gains for July and August upward. Economist cautioned against reading too much into the low September job growth, since it was probably affected by displacements and other distortions caused by Hurricane Florence, Bloomberg reports. Harold Maass