A job searcher holds an employment application as he attends the Choice Career Fair in West Palm Beach, Florida. | Getty Economy created 156,000 jobs in September

The penultimate jobs report before the November election showed that the economy added 156,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday, down from 167,000 in August.

Unemployment was 5 percent, a slight uptick from August’s 4.9 percent.


Average private-sector earnings were up 6 cents over August, when they rose 2 cents. Wages were up 2.6 percent over September 2015.

Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said September's jobs report continued "the longest streak of total job growth on record." Since the start of 2016, he said, "hourly earnings for private-sector workers have increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, much faster than the pace of inflation."

Republicans were less impressed. David Malpass, senior economic adviser to Donald Trump, called the jobs report "weak" and said it "shows a troubling long-term trend: After seven hard years of the Clinton-Obama administration their policies still can't produce better-paying jobs and upward mobility." House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) called the report "underwhelming."

But analysts said September's jobs report was a good sign for the economy.

Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, told CNBC that the jobs report was "within the broad range of expectations."

"The main point is, slow and steady does win the race for this recovery, which began in the summer of 2009," he said.

Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the slight increase to the unemployment rate was "the result of more workers entering the labor force, which may reflect optimism about future job prospects and economic growth." Labor force participation was 62.9 percent, up from August's 62.8 percent, but still close to its lowest level since the 1970s.

The jobs report could motivate the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates before the end of the year. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told CNBC that the jobs numbers were "solid."

"This is very consistent with what we expected to see, certainly with my forecast," she said.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted the creation about 168,000 jobs, an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, and an increase in hourly earnings of 0.3 percent. The payroll company ADP estimated Wednesday based on its own records that September job growth in the private sector was 154,000.

The jobs report followed news from the Commerce Department last week that GDP increased 1.4 percent during the second quarter of 2016. That was higher than two previous second-quarter estimates of 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, and also higher than the 0.8 percent that GDP grew in the first quarter of 2016. The Commerce Department’s first cut at estimating third-quarter growth for 2016 will be released Oct. 28.