US registers third month of slow hiring in last report before elections

The unemployment rate fell last month to 7.9% from 8.4% in August

America's employers added 661,000 jobs in September, the third straight month of slower hiring and evidence from the final jobs report before the presidential election that the economic recovery has weakened.

With September's hiring gain, the economy has recovered only slightly more than half the 22 million jobs that were wiped out by the viral pandemic. Nearly 10 million jobs remain lost more than were shed during the entire 2008-2009 Great Recession.

And the pattern of slower hiring will delay a full recovery of jobs: Compared with September's more modest gain, employers added nearly 1.5 million jobs in August, 1.8 million in