The U.S. economy added 315,000 jobs in August, according to the Department of Labor, which said the nation now has regained the number of jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent because more people entered the labor market looking for work, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly report on Friday.
The leisure and hospitality sector added 31,000 jobs in August, below the year-to-date trend of 90,000 jobs per month, the bureau said. Manufacturing gained 22,000 jobs in August, with durable goods accounting for almost all that increase.
In his statement yesterday commemorating Labor Day, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that 9.7 million jobs have been added to the U.S. economy since President Biden took office last year, with the August jobs data quantifying that, “our nation’s working people have come all the way back from the depths of the global pandemic, regaining every job lost and more.”
Walsh added: “There were those who said America’s workers didn’t want to go back to work, but Labor Day is a reminder of how warped and defeatist that view of our nation is and always has been. We’ve shown how much we can overcome and how much we can achieve together.”
The August employment results were largely within economists’ expectations, and the Wall Street Journal reported that the pace of job gains keeps the Federal Reserve on track for more interest rate increases. The acceleration of new entrants returning to the labor market may ease wage inflation, the Journal said.
