(CNN) — A long-awaited jobs report offered a mixed picture of the US labor market.

The economy added 119,000 jobs in September, marking an unexpected rebound for the labor market as the overall economy shows signs of slowing.

However, the long-delayed September report also highlighted continued weak points in the US labor market: Unemployment rose to 4.4%, a fresh nearly four-year high, and August’s tepid job gains of 22,000 were revised to a job loss of 4,000 jobs, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday.

Economists were expecting 50,000 jobs to have been added and an unemployment rate that remained at 4.3%, according to FactSet.

Although the September employment data has been on the shelf since early October, it provides a critical snapshot of the labor market

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