The US economy was predicted to add hundreds of thousands of jobs last month but instead gained only 194,000 as the Delta variant of Covid-19 again denied President Joe Biden the soaring labour market he is banking on — at least for now.

Schools shed jobs and the bars and restaurants that have become a barometer of the virus' threat to business added barely any positions in the Labour Department's September employment report, which at best presented a mixed verdict on the state of the world's largest economy.

Nonetheless, it underlined that the US has come a long ways from the devastating weeks last year when Covid-19 caused tens of millions to lose their jobs; the unemployment rate ticked down more than expected to 4.8 per cent, and the last two months' jobs gains were revised upwards, according to AFP.