Employers in the United States added 254,000 workers to their payrolls in September, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent.

Economists had been expecting 150,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent. The number far exceeded even the most optimistic estimates. Some analysts had estimated as few as 70,000 workers would be added to payrolls.

Adding to the strength of the report, the estimate for July was revised up by 55,000 to 144,000 and the estimate for August was revised up by 17,000 to 159,000. These revisions together added 72,000 jobs.