US employers added 173,000 jobs in August, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment rate fell from 5.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent, the lowest rate since April 2008, leaving it at a level that the US Federal Reserve considers to be full employment.
Businesses created 140,000 jobs, while federal, state and local governments added 33,000 jobs.
Revisions to the previous two months showed that employers added a total of 44,000 jobs to overall payrolls.
The total number of people employed rose by 196,000. 8 million people remained unemployed. 6.5 million Americans were working part-time, because they couldn’t find full-time jobs, up 158,000 from the previous month.
The share of working-age Americans either working or looking for a job, a measure known as the labor-force participation rate, held steady for the third consecutive month, at 62.6 per cent. That was the lowest level since the late 1970s.
Employment in health care and social assistance rose by 56,400. Professional and business services and the leisure and hospitality sector each added 33,000 jobs. Retailers hired 11,200 workers, a marked slowdown in hiring compared with July (32,400). Construction companies took on 3,000 workers. Manufacturers slashed 17,000 positions as a strong dollar hurt American exporters.
The average workweek picked up, from 34.5 hours to 34.6 hours. Average hourly private-sector earnings rose 0.3 per cent from the previous month to 25.09 dollars. Earnings were up 2.2 per cent over the past year.
The Federal Reserve is seeking firmer wage growth as it considers raising interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The August payrolls report is the last one indicating the strength in the job market, before a meeting of Fed policymakers on September 16th-17th. The International Monetary Fund has called on the US central bank to refrain from raising interest rates from near zero levels this year, because a rate hike might lead to destabilising capital flight from emerging economies.
Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a 3.7 per cent annualised pace in the second quarter. However, faltering economic growth in China, financial market volatility, which was set off by Chinese authorities’ August 11 decision to devalue its currency, and falling commodity prices could hamper US growth prospects.
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin
