Summer Hiring Cooled Off In August

The economy added just 235,000 jobs in August, the U.S. Department of Labor reported today, a dramatic drop in hiring after a summer surge as the economy reopened and then faced the rise of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 235,000 in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said, following increases of 1.1 million in July and 962,000 in June. Nonfarm employment has risen by 17 million since April 2020, but is down by 5.3 million, or 3.5%, from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.

The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.2% in August. The number of people unemployed also edged down, to 8.4 million, following a large decrease in July. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession but remain above their levels before the pandemic — 3.5% and 5.7 million, respectively, in February 2020.

So far this year, monthly job growth has averaged 586,000. In August, notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, private education, manufacturing, and other services. Employment in retail trade declined over the month.

Employment in financial activities rose by 16,000 over the month, with most of the gain occurring in real estate, which added 11,000 jobs. Employment in financial activities, however, is down by 29,000 since February 2020.

In August, employment showed little change in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade and health care.

The report presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry.

To read the full report, visit www.dol.gov.