By Alicia Wallace, NCS
(NCS) — Job growth slowed to a crawl in August, and the unemployment charge rose to its highest degree in nearly four years, indicating the US labor market is rising stagnant.
The economy added just 22,000 jobs final month and the unemployment charge rose to 4.3% from 4.2%, in keeping with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
August’s job report additionally included a downward revision to June, which confirmed the US economy misplaced 13,000 jobs that month. It’s the primary unfavorable employment month since December 2020, and it brings to an finish what was the second-longest interval of employment growth on file.
“The Great American jobs machine has stalled,” Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, wrote in commentary issued Friday.
July’s job good points have been revised up barely to 79,000 from 73,000, in keeping with the report.
Stock futures have been blended after the information launch. Dow futures have been down 60 factors, or 0.13%. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.6%. Yields on the 2-year, 10-year and 30-year Treasury observe swiftly dropped as traders flocked to bonds, signaling expectations for a weakening economy.
Warning indicators have been flashing for months that the job market has been losing steam. That grew to become starkly clearer in July, when weak job growth and larger-than-typical downward revisions spurred the unprecedented firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer by President Donald Trump who claimed, with out proof, that the disappointing information should have been “rigged.”
Other labor market information launched to date this week additional confirmed that the labor market has cooled down significantly: Private-sector hiring slowed sharply; preliminary jobless claims hit a nearly three-month excessive; layoff bulletins picked up; and, for the primary time in four years, the variety of out there jobs is decrease than the variety of job seekers.
The low-hire, low-fire atmosphere is leaving staff and job hunters with few alternatives. A low-churn labor market is susceptible to shocks, economists warn.
Economists have been anticipating that the economy added 76,500 jobs final month and that the unemployment charge rose to 4.3%, in keeping with FactSet.
This story is growing and will likely be up to date.
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NCS’s John Towfighi contributed reporting.