American companies are adding jobs slowly and unevenly, just enough to plug the dike against a wave of fears that the economy could slip back into recession.

But with a ballooning European debt crisis sending ripples across the Atlantic and anxiety continuing over the tortured political landscape here, there is little indication that American employers will hire enough to put the millions of unemployed people back to work any time soon.

The Labor Department said Friday that American employers added 103,000 net new jobs in September, indicating that the economy is at least not weakening and that businesses have weathered the oil price shocks and the Japanese disaster-related supply chain disruptions earlier this year.

The government also revised its estimates upward for the previous two months, suggesting that job growth in the summer was better than originally reported. Still, the Labor Department’s monthly snapshot captures the economic challenges as President Obama continues to press Congress to pass his jobs bill.