Quick Facts:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 315,000 in August.
- The unemployment rate increased to 3.7 percent.
- Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade.
- The number of unemployed persons increased 344,000 to 6 million.
- The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.1 million in August. The long-term unemployed accounted for 18.8 percent of all unemployed persons.
Looking Forward:
- Nonfarm payrolls rose solidly in August amid an otherwise slowing economy, while the unemployment rate ticked higher as more workers rejoined the labor force, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
- Professional and business services led payroll gains with 68,000, followed by health care with 48,000 and retail with 44,000. Leisure and hospitality, which had been a leading sector in the pandemic-era jobs recovery, rose by just 31,000 for the month after averaging 90,000 in the previous seven months of 2022. The unemployment rate for the sector jumped to 6.1%, its highest since February.
- The jobs numbers pose a quandary for a Federal Reserve trying to get inflation under control. Inflation is running near its fastest pace in more than 40 years as a combination of a supply-demand imbalance, massive stimulus from the Fed and Congress and the war in Ukraine has sent the cost of living soaring.
- Some signs point to an economy that is rapidly cooling under the weight of high inflation. The Fed is raising interest rates to slow the economy and curb price increases. Some major employers, including Ford Motor Co., Snap Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Wayfair Inc., have announced job cuts in the past few weeks.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
