The U.S. economy added 187,000 jobs in August, while unemployment unexpectedly increased as the labor market continued to show signs of cooling, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday.
In August, the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%, up from 3.5% and the highest since February 2022. Economists had expected unemployment to remain unchanged at 3.5%. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the economy would add 170,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August.
Revisions to the July and June jobs reports released Friday showed there were 110,000 fewer jobs created during those months than previously reported. Over the last 12 months, job gains have now averaged 271,000 per month; the economy has exceeded this pace of hiring only twice in the last nine months.
Wages, a closely watched indicator of how much leverage workers are exerting in the labor market, rose less than expected last month, rising 0.2% on a monthly basis and 4.3% over last year. Economists expected wages to rise 0.3% over last month and 4.3% over last year. Wages had risen 4.4% over the last year in July.
The labor force participation rate increased to 62.8%, the highest level since February 2020. Meanwhile, average weekly hours worked ticked up in August to 34.4, up from 34.3 in July.
Click here to read the full report from Josh Schafer in Yahoo Finance.