Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains
occurred in construction and health care.
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in August. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.
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1st para summarizes the payroll survey [a healthy economy would produce 300k+ new jobs], 2nd para summarizes the household survey. Additional info in the report includes a decrease in previously reported job gains in June and July (which weren't that great to begin with), a slight decrease in temporary layoffs, a decent increase in average wage and a small increase in the average workweek. It increases the odds that the Fed will make a 50 basis point decrease in the Federal funds rate in two weeks. |