How many days will it take for the cheque to clear? medcityescape.com U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in September, with the unemployment rate falling to 7.2 percent, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Though the jobless rate dropped, the payrolls figure comes in well below consensus expectations, which were at 185,000, according to Bloomberg. It also represents a slowdown from August, when the economy added a revised 193,000 jobs.