Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000 in August, and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. Employment in
transportation and warehousing declined.
…
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 80,000, from +185,000
to +105,000, and the change for July was revised down by 30,000, from +187,000 to +157,000. With
these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 110,000 lower than previously reported.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.
The first graph shows the jobs added per month since January 2021.
Payrolls for June and July were revised down 110 thousand, combined.
The second graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.
In August, the year-over-year change was 3.09 million jobs. Employment was up significantly year-over-year but has slowed to more normal levels of job growth recently.
The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.
The Labor Force Participation Rate was increased to 62.8% in August, from 62.6% in July. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.
The Employment-Population ratio was unchanged at 60.4% from 60.4% (blue line).
I’ll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.
The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate decreased in August to 3.8% from 3.5% in July.
This was at consensus expectations; however, June and July payrolls were revised down by 110,000 combined.
I’ll have more later …