The U.S. added 22,000 jobs in August, with unemployment rising slightly to 4.3%, in the latest sign of a slowing economy.
The numbers, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have taken on new scrutiny after President Donald Trump fired the head of the agency following July’s lackluster jobs report, even as economists warned that the move was a step toward politicizing the statistics gathering of the federal government.
The latest jobs figures were lower than a number of economists expected. As is typical, the BLS revised its figures for July up slightly, by 6,000, to 79,000 jobs added during the month. But the June figures were revised down, from 14,000 to a loss of 13,000. That is the first month of job loss since December 2020, noted Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal.
“The labor market is going from frozen to cracking,” Long wrote on X.
Jobs in movie and music fell by 7,600, to 401,000, while broadcasting jobs dropped by 300, to 333,700, according to the report.
The largest job gains in August were in health care and social assistance, with employment in the federal government continuing to fall. There also were drops in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, as well as wholesale trade. Jobs in manufacturing declined by 12,000, but is off by 78,000 for the year.
Average hourly earnings for employees rose by 10 cents, to $36.53. Hourly wages have increased by 3.7% over the past 12 months.
The slowing economy puts more pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month, something that Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated may be warranted.
After the August figures were released, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS, claiming that she “faked” jobs numbers last year to help Kamala Harris. But the president’s claim was quickly refuted by William Beach, who headed the bureau during Trump’s first term. Trump also was jumbling the timeline of jobs revisions last year, per Politifact.
William J. Wiatrowski is serving as acting BLS commissioner, a veteran of the bureau, as Trump has since nominated E.J. Antoni to lead it. Antoni has been a loyalist of the president, and has been harshly critical of the bureau, writing on X last year that “DOGE needs to take a chainsaw to the BLS.”