A rebound in the job market in August that still showed signs of cooling is likely to keep the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point this month.

The results: 142,000 jobs were created in the month of August, compared with economists' expectations for 165,000 and up from 89,000 in July that was revised down from 114,000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2% from 4.3% in July.

With continued cooling in the job market and confidence that inflation is now dropping back toward the central bank's 2% target, two members of the Fed said Friday the time has come to cut rates but stopped short of telegraphing by how much.

"I believe the time has come to lower the target range for the federal funds rate at our upcoming meeting," Fed governor Chris Waller said in a speech at the University of Notre Dame titled "The time has come."