After months of record gains in job growth, the American economy added just 235,000 jobs – a drop that seems to indicate the Delta variant is slowing things. Economists were projecting a gain of 725,000 jobs.
As coronavirus vaccinations were becoming more widespread, the economy added 962,000 new jobs in June, and July surpassed that with 1.05 million. But August saw the pace of hiring slowed greatly with no jobs in the hospitality and leisure industries.
Two bits of good news: longterm unemployment has been consistently falling and wage growth has improved faster than expected with earnings climbing 0.6% in a single month, or 4.3% on a year-over-year basis.
The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent, compared with 5.4 percent in July.
In August, the unemployment rate declined to 5.2% and we added 235,000 jobs to the economy. Despite a jump in coronavirus cases in many parts of the country, the economy continues to rebound thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act and rising vaccination rates. #JobsReport pic.twitter.com/4LItwBiRYN
— US Labor Department (@USDOL) September 3, 2021
Since April of 2020, the economy has regained 17 million jobs initially lost due to the pandemic, but still needs 5.3 million more to reach the employment levels of pre-pandemic February 2020.
Read more at Axios.
Switching to household: despite weak payroll growth, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent, down from 5.4 percent in July, on the back of a small increase in the labor force.#jobsreport #jobsday 9/ pic.twitter.com/WsEsn1LS71
— Daniel Zhao (@DanielBZhao) September 3, 2021