US unemployment rate rises to 3.8%, Non-farm payrolls added 187k jobs

September 01, 2023 (MLN): The U.S. unemployment rate for the month of August rose to 3.8%, while non-farm payrolls (NFP) added 187,000 jobs for the said month, the latest data issued by the U.S. Bureau of labor statistics on Friday showed.

NFP, which shows the number of jobs created in the U.S. excluding farm workers, added more jobs than the market analysts' expectations of 170,000 jobs, while this was less than the average monthly gain of 271,000 over the prior 12 months.

Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. Employment in transportation and warehousing declined.  

The unemployment rate rose by 0.3% to 3.8% in August, and the number of unemployed persons increased by 514,000 to 6.4 million.

Both measures are little different from a year earlier, when the unemployment rate was 3.7% and the number of unemployed persons was 6.0 million.

In August, the labor force participation rate rose by 0.2% to 62.8%, after being flat since March. The employment-population ratio was unchanged over the month at 60.4%.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 80,000, from +185,000 to +105,000, and the change for July was revised down by 30,000, from +187,000 to +157,000.

With these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 110,000 lower than previously reported.

NFP is a key indicator of the U.S. labor market performance.

Copyright Mettis Link News