American employers added 254,000 jobs last month in the penultimate jobs report before the US election, defying fears of a slowdown in the labor market.

Job creation unexpectedly accelerated in September, while the headline unemployment rate slipped to 4.1% from 4.2% in August.

Economists had forecast a non-farm payrolls reading of around 132,500 for September, after a cooler summer of employment growth.

Hiring instead rose sharply from recent months. In August employers added 159,000 jobs, and in July, they added 144,000.

Both estimates for July and August were revised higher by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday – adding 72,000 more jobs than previously reported – highlighting the strength of the labor market.

September’s unexpectedly robust data could set the stage for a more complex picture of the US labor market this month after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the south-east, Boeing was hit with a sweeping strike, and tens of thousands of port workers across the east and Gulf coasts staged a strike this week. The ports strike ended on Thursday night.

As November’s presidential election edges closer, the US economy is a key issue for voters. Earlier this week, a Harris Poll for the Guardian found that Kamala Harris’s economic policies proved more popular than those put forward by Donald Trump in a blind test.

The poll nevertheless highlighted economic pessimism on both sides of the aisle, with almost half of respondents wrongly stating that the US was in recession.

Inflation has fallen dramatically since peaking at its highest level in a generation two summers ago. But concerns over the cost of living continue to loom large, after years of significant price growth.

The US has reached a key juncture. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in four years last month, having lifted them to a two-decade high in a bid to cool down the economy as part of its aggressive battle to curb inflation.

Now price growth is falling, policymakers at the Fed are searching for a so-called “soft landing” for their campaign, where inflation is brought back down to typical levels and a broader downturn is avoided.

Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, cast doubt on the latest jobs reading – and suggested it would likely be revised. “September’s spike in payrolls goes against the grain of a wide range of indicators pointing to a continued pullback in hiring,” he said. “The extremely low response rate to the payroll survey waves a red flag.”

Wall Street nevertheless started the day higher. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.7% and the technology-focused Nasdaq Compsite increased 1.1%.