(RTTNews) – The Labor Department released its closely watched monthly employment report on Friday, showing that US job growth slowed in September, but was still slightly faster than economists expected. The report showed that non-farm payrolls increased by 263,000 jobs in September after an increase of 315,000 jobs in August and 537,000 jobs in July. Economists had expected employment to increase by 250,000 jobs. , The slightly stronger than expected job growth was driven by significant employment growth in the leisure and restaurants and health care sectors, which added 83,000 jobs and 75, 000 jobs. , Economists noted that the job growth was even greater when excluding the decline in state and local education fees, which reflected the seasonal difference in teacher employment. The Labor Department also reported that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in September from 3.7 percent in August, while economists expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.