Overview

• Labor Department data also revised June to a loss of 13,000 jobs, the first monthly decline since 2020, leaving recent gains near the weakest outside recessions.
• Manufacturing employment has fallen by about 78,000 this year while health care provided most of August’s additions, with roughly 46,800 new jobs.
• Economists increasingly point to sweeping tariffs and stricter immigration enforcement as key drags on hiring by raising costs, uncertainty, and labor constraints.
• There are now more unemployed workers than job openings for the first time since 2021, and Black unemployment climbed to about 7.5%, a historically sensitive warning sign.
• The weak figures deepen political fallout after President Trump fired the BLS commissioner, and they intensify pressure on Chair Jerome Powell as markets anticipate rate cuts.