“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.2 percent, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in construction and health care. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys.”
“The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry… The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 61,000, from +179,000 to +118,000, and the change for July was revised down by 25,000, from +114,000 to +89,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 86,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors),” says the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly jobs report for August 2024.
The 142,000 jobs comes in slightly weaker than the 161,000 expected by Dow Jones, though the rate matched the estimate, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s not clear yet how the numbers will affect the size of the very long-anticipated interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Bank.