Unemployment up as employers added just 22,000 jobs last month

Pres. Trump fires BLS commissioner after jobs report

Days after announcing her firing in August, President Trump accused the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of inflating job numbers to an “all-time high” before the U.S. presidential election. LiveNOW’s Andrew Craft is learning about what the President calls “a scam” with Paul Mueller, a Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

Unemployment ticked up last month, with employers adding just 22,000 jobs amid uncertainty over the U.S. economy.

According to the Labor Department, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs — rose last week to the highest level since June, though the number of claims remained within a healthy range.

August jobs report

By the numbers:

According to the Labor Department, hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021.

Factories slashed 12,000 jobs last month, the fourth straight month that manufacturers have cut payrolls. Construction companies cut 7,000 jobs, and the federal government 15,000.

Labor Department revisions cut 21,000 jobs off June and July payrolls and revealed that employers had actually cut 13,000 jobs in June, the first monthly job losses since December 2020.

Workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from July and 3.7% from August 2024, exactly what forecasters expected. The year-over-year figure is nearing the 3.5% that many economists see as consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.

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The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said U.S.-based employers have announced more than 892,000 jobs cuts this year through August, more than the 761,000 reported for all 12 months of 2024.

In a sign that U.S. hiring gains are limited and fragile, nearly 80% of new private sectors jobs this year have been created in just one industry: healthcare and social assistance, a Labor Department category that spans hospitals to daycare centers.

‘Signs of cracking’

Dig deeper:

The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump’s policies, including his trade wars, have created uncertainty that leaves managers reluctant to make hiring decisions.

What they’re saying:

“The labor market is showing signs of cracking,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told The Associated Press before Friday’s report. “It’s not a red siren alarm yet, but the signs keep growing that businesses are starting to cut workers.’’

How will Trump respond?

The backstory:

After seeing the weak July jobs numbers, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, baselessly claiming the hiring report had been rigged to hurt him politically.

He has nominated a partisan idealogue, E.J. Antoni, to replace her. But for now, pending Antoni’s confirmation by the Senate, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, William Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official.

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Economists and others familiar with how the jobs numbers are collected have expressed confidence that Labor Department procedures will keep the data are safe from political interference.

Thursday night, Trump shrugged off whatever hiring numbers would come out Friday.

“The real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now,’’ the president said.