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3w ago

U.S. Job Growth Stalls as August Adds 22,000 and Unemployment Hits 4.3%

Economists cite tariffs plus policy uncertainty as key drags on hiring, intensifying pressure for the Fed to cut rates.

Customers enter a grocery store in Westminster, California, on August 7.
Manufacturing is one of several goods-related industries to have shed jobs in recent months.

Overview

  • Revisions showed June payrolls fell by 13,000, the first monthly job loss since 2020, and three-month hiring has averaged roughly 29,000.
  • Hiring is narrowly concentrated in health care (+46,800 in August) while goods-producing industries keep cutting jobs, with manufacturing down 78,000 this year.
  • Black unemployment climbed to 7.5%, the highest since October 2021, and youth joblessness rose, signaling broader labor‑market stress.
  • Analysts increasingly link the slowdown to sweeping tariffs, tighter immigration and heightened uncertainty, as the administration asks the Supreme Court to review its tariff authority under the IEEPA.
  • Weak labor data have increased market odds of a September rate cut, even as inflation edges higher and the White House’s firing of the BLS commissioner fuels concerns about statistical independence.