US adds 162,000 jobs as unemployment rate holds at 4.1% in August

The August employment report is also an important data point for the Federal Reserve ahead of its September 15-16 policy meeting. The central bank has been weighing its next move on interest rates as it tries to deal with persistently high inflation without putting additional pressure on the job market.

Hiring picks up in restaurants and local education

The biggest job gains in August came from food services and drinking places, which added 59,000 jobs. This was well above the sector’s average monthly gain of 12,000 jobs over the previous 12 months.Local government education added 42,000 jobs, largely reversing a decline in the previous month.

Manufacturing continued to add jobs, with employment increasing by 16,000. Machinery manufacturing and fabricated metal product manufacturing each added around 6,000 jobs.

Healthcare employment rose by 13,000, although this was slower than the sector’s average monthly gain of 32,000 over the past year. Home healthcare services added 11,000 jobs, while hospitals added 8,000. Construction employment increased by 22,000 in August, although the sector saw little overall change during the month.

Household survey inputs

Among different groups, unemployment for Asian workers fell to 3.2%. Teen unemployment increased slightly to 14.1%. Unemployment rates for adult men, adult women, White, Black, and Hispanic workers saw little change.About 1.9 million people had been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, making up 27% of all unemployed people.

The labour force participation rate increased slightly to 61.6%, although it is still 0.5 percentage points lower than it was in January. The employment-population ratio remained steady at 59.1%. The number of people working part-time because they could not find full-time work or had their hours reduced fell by 414,000 to 4.4 million.

5.7 million people outside the labour force said they wanted a job, but they were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work or were unavailable to start work.

Around 1.7 million people were marginally attached to the labour force, meaning they wanted work and were available but had not recently searched for a job. This included 441,000 discouraged workers who believed there were no jobs available for them.

Information sector loses 23,000 jobs

The information industry was one of the few major sectors to lose jobs in August, cutting 23,000 positions. The sector had already been losing an average of 8,000 jobs per month over the previous 12 months.

Job losses were reported in computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting and related services, publishing industries, and broadcasting and content providers.

Employment showed little change in several other major industries, including retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, professional and business services, wholesale trade, and social assistance.

Wages continue to rise

Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm employees increased by 10 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.75 in August. Over the past year, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.1%.

For private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees, average hourly earnings rose by 11 cents, or 0.3%, to $32.53.

The average workweek for all private nonfarm employees also increased by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. Manufacturing workers saw their average workweek rise to 40.5 hours.

June and July job figures revised higher

The government also revised its employment figures for the previous two months. June payroll growth was revised up by 11,000, from 20,000 jobs to 31,000. July’s figure was revised up by 44,000, from a loss of 23,000 jobs to a gain of 21,000. The revisions added 55,000 more jobs to the June and July totals than previously reported.

Fed turns attention to inflation data

Friday’s jobs report gives Federal Reserve officials a stronger picture of the labour market heading into their September meeting.

“Today’s report was strong, and we could see markets take a react first, ask questions later approach. But once the dust settles, we think investors will realize the broader trend of labour market rebalancing is still intact,” said Tim Urbanowicz, chief investment strategist, Innovator ETFs at Goldman Sachs Asset Management to CBS

The report was in line with the Federal Reserve’s view that the labour market remains stable. With unemployment holding at 4.1% and hiring coming in much stronger than expected, policymakers are now likely to pay close attention to next week’s inflation data before making their interest-rate decision.

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