According to figures issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy added 187,000 jobs in August, which was slightly more than predicted.
The monthly job increase was similar to the previous month’s; however, the July total was revised down by 30,000 jobs to 157,000. June was also dramatically reduced down, from 185,000 to 105,000.According to Refinitiv, economists expected total job gains of 170,000.
The August figure is still a deceleration from the previous two years of record job creation, and it comes as the Federal Reserve seeks to reduce inflation without causing mass unemployment.The unemployment rate suddenly increased from 3.5% to 3.8%. Since March 2022, it has steadily fluctuated between 3.4% and 3.7%, and economists predicted it would remain at 3.5%.
“With 187,000 new jobs added in August 2023 and unemployment at 3.8%, we are seeing a slow glide into a cooler labor market this Labor Day weekend after red-hot post-pandemic hiring,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president and chief commercial officer of ManpowerGroup, in a statement. “With ‘pandemic paranoia’ about hiring lingering, companies are continuing to hold on to their workers, remembering how difficult it was to rehire.”
The monthly jobs report is made up of two surveys that evaluate employment levels and activity: one that polls businesses about employment, hours, and earnings, and another that polls households to determine the labor force status of the population along with demographic information.
The unemployment rate is derived from the latter, which is frequently volatile: The previous time the United States witnessed such a huge swing upward in the unemployment rate (apart from the start of the epidemic) was in May, when it surged 0.3 percentage points to 3.7% before falling back the next two months.
According to the BLS report, the increase in unemployment in August was driven by an increase in those who lost their jobs and those who completed temporary occupations. This group increased by 294,000 to 2.9 million in August, countering a 280,000 fall in July. The number of new workers entered the labor force increased to 597,000. The labor force participation rate increased to 62.8%, the highest level since the pandemic began.
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