By Megan Henney, Fox Business–

The U.S. economy added 661,000 jobs in September, suggesting the labor market’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to plateau amid fading government relief money and a gradually growing virus caseload.

The Labor Department’s payroll report released Friday is the last before the Nov. 3 presidential election, for which the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent economic recession have been a major issue. It showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 7.9% from 8.4%.

Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected the report to show that unemployment dropped to 8.2% and the economy added 850,000 jobs.

It’s well below the combined 7.5 million jobs added in May and June before hiring cooled in July, with the growth of 1.9 million positions, and in August, with 1.4 million created. There are still roughly 10.7 million more out-of-work Americans than there were in February before the pandemic hit, according to the report.

Leisure and hospitality, one of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic, once again led in terms of job growth, with gains of 318,000. Retail added 142,000, and health care and social assistance rose by 108,000.