Number of jobs remained stable in August, unemployment rate falls to 4.2%

Expectations earlier this week were for about 161,000 new jobs to be created in the United States in August. However, as the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, the labor market did not fare quite so well. NBC News reported:

While the total number of jobs fell short of expectations, all things considered, this is not a bad report. Not only was the number of jobs higher in August than in June and July, the unemployment rate improved and wage growth continued to outpace inflation.

Still, there’s no denying that the labor market has cooled compared to last year’s staggering numbers – the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates, and that’s had the intended effect – and the Fed will almost certainly respond to developments by cutting rates later this month.

Heather Long of the Washington Post summed it up this way: “There are clear warning signs, but a ‘soft landing’ is still quite possible.”

On the political side, let’s go back to previous reporting to put the data in perspective. Over the course of the first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency – when the Republican said the U.S. economy was the largest in the history of the planet – the economy created about 6.38 million jobs in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

According to recent figures, the U.S. economy has created over 16.3 million jobs since January 2021 – more than twice the number created in Trump’s first three years in office combined.

For additional context, consider annual job growth over the past decade, updated to reflect the latest data revisions:

2013: 2.3 million

2014: 3 million

2015: 2.7 million

2016: 2.3 million

2017: 2.1 million

2018: 2.3 million

2019: 1.98 million

2020: -9.3 million

2021: 7.2 million

2022: 4.5 million

2023: 3 million

Eight months to 2024: 1.5 million

This post updates our Related previous reporting.