The U.S. economy continued to add new jobs in August, although the pace slowed compared to the previous month, while wages continued to move upward, government data released today showed.
In particular, jobs in the economy increased by 315,000 last month, after the rise of 526,000 jobs in July, as the US Department of Labor announced today. July’s reading was revised slightly lower than the original figure of 528,000.
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose to 3.7% from 3.5% as the labor force participation rate strengthened. The participation rate climbed to 62.4% from 62.1%.
The average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg poll was for 300,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at 3.5%.
Hourly wages rose 0.3% in August to $32.36, with overall growth over the past year reaching 5.2%, among the biggest increases since the early 1980s.
The latest data belies concerns that the slowing economy and fears of an impending recession will lead US businesses to freeze new hires.
The data also appears to pave the way for the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in September.
The strong job market is easing concerns about the risk of a recession, allowing the Fed to raise interest rates further to rein in the highest inflation in 40 years. Analysts, however, warn that with successive and large increases in interest rates, the risk of recession increases.
Source: Capital
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