Employers added a modest 142,000 jobs last month, well below the predicted mark of just over 160,000. Hiring in June and July was revised sharply down by a combined 86,000, and July's job gain was the weakest since the pandemic.
Collectively, Friday’s figures depict a job market slowing under the pressure of high interest rates but still growing. Many businesses appear to be holding off on adding jobs, in part because of uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election and about how fast the Fed will reduce its benchmark rate in the coming months.
Daniel Zhao, lead economist at the career website Glassdoor, said some of the details in the August jobs report indicate that businesses' demand for workers is slowing. The number of Americans who are working part time but would prefer full-time work rose, extending a year-long trend.
“When you look under the hood, you’re seeing numbers that confirm that the job market is on that cooling trajectory, Zhao said.
America's labor market is now in an unusual place: Jobholders are mostly secure, with layoffs low, historically speaking. Yet with the pace of hiring having weakened, landing a job has become harder.
In the past three months, hiring has averaged only 116,000 a month, down sharply from an average of 211,000 a year ago. And August's job gains were concentrated in just a few industries, with health care adding 44,000 jobs, restaurants, hotels and entertainment companies gaining 46,000, and construction 34,000. Steady hiring by restaurants and hotels could reflect ongoing gains in consumer spending, which rose last month even after adjusting for inflation.
