This month’s employment report showed 12,000 lost manufacturing jobs, which makes a total of 78,000 lost over the course of this year.
Employers added 22,000 new jobs in August. For those paying attention, this is substantially below what had been forecast.
Employers added 22,000 jobs in August, with private sector payrolls up 38,000.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% (This is the highest since 2021.)
Job growth for June was revised down to show a *loss* of 13,000 jobs, and July was revised up to a gain of 79,000 from 73,000. On…
Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) September 5, 2025
The jobs report was released early Friday morning, and it indicated a rising unemployment rate, plus job numbers adjustments for June and July. TLDR: things don’t look great.
Some silver linings: Though job growth was low, layoffs were also relatively low. That said, people who have been fired or laid off have struggled to get back on their feet: „The number of people with continued unemployment claims has been elevated since April“, reports The New York Times.
Health care alone added 31K jobs. The rest of the economy lost jobs
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) September 5, 2025
It is very likely now that the Federal Reserve Board will drop interest rates, something they’ve hesitated to do for about the last nine months. But with a struggling labor market, it might be time. (The stock market is reacting fine to all this news; though a bad jobs report isn’t great, an interest rate cut could be good.)
„Although there’s no evidence of rapidly mounting layoffs, in July the number of unemployed people surpassed the number of available jobs for the first time since the spring of 2021. Job openings have fallen sharply for two months in health care, which has been the main industry driving growth over the past year“, reports The New York Times. „Also in the labor market weakness column: data from the payroll provider ADP, which showed just 54,000 private-sector jobs were added in August. Since the public sector most likely shed jobs last month as the Trump administration continues to fire people, the total number could be lower.
