By Thomas Catenacci
Daily Caller News Foundation
The U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell to …
By Thomas Catenacci Daily Caller News Foundation The U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday. The number of unemployed people decreased to 8.4 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Economists projected 720,000 Americans — roughly three times the actual number — would be added to payrolls prior to Friday’s report, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Despite the delta variant, there is still an opening up of the service sector of the U.S. economy,” Nationwide Mutual Insurance Chief Economist David Berson told the WSJ. “While that started some months ago, it’s not nearly complete.” Economists have warned that the delta variant of COVID-19 could impede the economic recovery that has taken place over the last several months. Coronavirus cases have surged since mid-July from around 17,000 per day to 153,000 per day, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed. The private sector added 374,000 jobs in August, fewer than the 600,000 economists expected, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday. Medium-sized businesses, which added 149,000 jobs, accounted for the biggest slice of the job growth while small businesses, which hired 86,000 workers, accounted for the smallest. In July, the economy added 943,000 jobs, more than the 845,000 economists expected.
