The Federal Reserve is expected to slash interest rates for the first time in more than four years this month, with Friday's job numbers playing a crucial role in determining the extent of the cut.The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 142,000 jobs were added last month, showing a slight improvement over July.Job creation slowed in the last quarter, and over the past year, the government reported it overcounted new jobs by more than 800,000, including in July, when they overestimated by more than 20%.Since last year, the unemployment rate has ticked up nearly a point from a half-century low, raising some concerns that the Federal Reserve may have overshot the "soft landing" they hoped for. The agency is worried it may have kept interest rates too high for too long, successfully cooling inflation but at the expense of the job market."The level of the labor market is not a problem. It's still a strong labor market," Louise Sheiner, an economist at The Brookings Institution, said. "The unemployment rate is still quite low, but the direction of the change is a little bit worrying. We don't want it to deteriorate much more from here."The Federal Reserve will also take into account new inflation data next week before making their decision about a rate cut. Central bankers must keep in mind that cutting too much could cause an inflation spike, while too little could jeopardize the job market.Some economists are not worried about the rise in unemployment due to an influx of immigrants and recent college graduates who haven't found work yet and are counted as "unemployed." Currently, there remains more than one job available for every unemployed person.Layoffs are roughly at their pre-pandemic level, suggesting while employers may not be hiring as many people, they don't appear to be firing them either.