(Reuters) -Federal Reserve policymakers look set to kick off a series of interest-rate cuts this month to shore up an increasingly fragile job market, after a government report Friday showed job gains last month skidded to a near stop, and the unemployment rate rose.

While Fed Chair Jerome Powell is likely to interpret the addition of a paltry 22,000 jobs last month with caution, given the drop in immigration, the tick up in the unemployment rate to 4.3% — the highest since October 2021 — will raise some alarm bells. With employers hiring only slowly, Powell said last month, any increase in what has been a very low rate of layoffs could lead to a sharply higher jobless rate.

More than a quarter of those out of work have been looking for a job for more than 27 weeks, Friday’s data showed.

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