America's jobs scare recedes
The labor market looks considerably healthier than it did at the start of the summer. Why it matters: Friday morning's jobs report recast the last two months as a period of modest job growth rather than of outright deterioration, capped by a gain last month that was more than triple what economists expected. The labor market is weathering the Iran conflict and an AI-driven transformation of the…
The U.S. labor market appears to be in better shape than it was at the beginning of summer. A recent jobs report indicated that employers added 162,000 jobs in August, the largest gain since March. This marks a shift from the previous perception of job losses during the summer. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1%. When accounting for positive revisions to June and July numbers, the three-month average job gains increased to 71,000, up from just 20,000.
Positive revisions to June and July numbers suggest that the jobs report might be more resilient than initially thought, with August's gains potentially being driven by seasonal factors rather than a sudden change in labor demand. Notably, local government education added 42,000 jobs in August, reversing July's decline. This revelation indicates that the summer's apparent weakness might have been due to seasonal volatility rather than a sudden change in labor demand.
The manufacturing sector added 16,000 jobs, continuing an upward trend that began late last year. Meanwhile, the information sector saw a decline of 23,000 jobs in August and 115,000 over the past year. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1%, while the labor force participation rate increased to 61.6%, reversing a two-month decline.
Written by urgent.news from Axios's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
