Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 315,000 in August as the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 300,000 jobs.
- In August, the unemployed population rose to 6 million but there were 11.2 million job openings in July.
- Professional and business services rose by 68,000 jobs, health care rose by 48,000, retail trade added 44,000, and manufacturing increased by 22,000.
- In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.10 to $32.36.
- The average workweek for all private employees decreased by 0.1 hours to 34.5 hours in August.
- The labor force participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage point over the month to 62.4% but is 1.0% below its February 2020 level.