WASHINGTON — U.S. job growth slowed in August as employers added 156,000 jobs, though still enough to suggest that most businesses remain confident in an economy now in its ninth year of recovery from the Great Recession.

The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3 percent to a still-low 4.4 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. The government also revised down its estimate of job growth in June and July by a combined 41,000, leaving an average monthly gain this year of a solid 176,000.

Taken as a whole, Friday’s jobs report pointed to an economy that is still steadily generating jobs, though at a less brisk pace than it did earlier in the recovery from the recession. With fewer people looking for work, fewer jobs are being filled.

In addition, monthly jobs reports can be volatile — especially figures for August, when employers are gearing up for the start of fall and the government can’t always precisely factor the changes into its employment data.

“It’s more noise than signal,” Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at tax consultant RSM, said of Friday’s report.

One persistent soft spot in the job market is pay raises, which remain tepid. Average hourly pay rose just 2.5 percent over the 12 months that ended in August. Wage growth typically averages 3.5 percent to 4 percent annually when unemployment is this low.

The economy has grown at a subpar annual pace of 2.1 percent during the first six months of 2017. Inflation is low. Consumer spending in July rose at its fastest pace in three months.