U.S. employers hired just 96,000 workers in September, the government said on Friday in a weak jobs snapshot, the final one ahead of presidential elections that also fueled speculation about a pause in interest-rate rises. Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry, who will face President George W. Bush later on Friday for the second of three presidential debates before the Nov. 2 vote, termed the report "disappointing." But Treasury Secretary John Snow countered that job creation showed the economy was "on the right path." The Labor Department report showed the unemployment rate held steady at 5.4 percent in September. But the unexpectedly small payrolls gain raised some questions whether a mid-year economic "soft patch" was persisting and might force the Federal Reserve to halt its campaign of incremental rate rises sooner than expected. Still, Fed officials on Friday sounded confident about the economy's future. Financial markets suffered as the dollar lost ground against the euro and stocks dropped sharply by mid-afternoon on worry about the vigor of U.S. growth. --More 2324 Local Time 2024 GMT
