STORY: U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 254,000 jobs last month, beating the 140,000 new jobs that economists polled by Reuters had anticipated.

The unemployment rate also unexpectedly slipped, to 4.1% from 4.2% in August.

Mayfield said the report "certainly shows that the labor market, while having cooled significantly from its hottest point across the last three years, is still pretty robust by historical standards."