US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, unemployment highest in 4 yrs

Summary

Facebook Tweet Email Link The US job market is stalling out. Job growth slowed to a crawl in August, and the unemployment rate rose to its highest level in nearly four years, indicating the US labor market is growing stagnant. The economy added just 22,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from 4.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. August’s job report also included a downward revision to June, which showed the US economy lost 13,000 jobs that month. It’s the first negative employment month since December 2020, and it brings to an end what was the second-longest period of employment expansion on record. “The Great American jobs machine has stalled,” Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, wrote in commentary issued Friday. July’s job gains were revised up slightly to 79,000 from 73,000, according to the report. Economists were expecting that the economy added 76,500 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, according to FactSet. The Dow rose 119 points, or 0.26%, Friday morning. The S&P 500 rose 0.41% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.63%, after the weaker-than-expected jobs data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September to stimulate the economy. Through August, monthly job gains average 74,750, BLS data shows. Excluding the pandemic, that’s the slowest average monthly gain for that January to August time frame since 2010, when the United States was still licking its wounds from the Great Recession. “The addition of just 22,000 jobs in August, along with net downward revisions of previous months, shows an economy straining under the immense economic uncertainty and significant policy changes of 2025,” Laura Ullrich, Indeed’s director of economic research for North America, wrote Friday. Uncertainty has swelled since the beginning of the year in large part around how President Donald Trump’s sweeping policies on tariffs, immigration and federal spending would shake ...