The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, more than double the consensus forecast of 65,000, as the labor market rebounded sharply from two weak months. The unemployment rate held at 4.1%.
August's gain was the strongest since March and well above the average monthly gain of 31,000 over the prior 12 months.
Economists had forecast a net gain of 65,000 jobs and expected the unemployment rate to tick up to 4.2%.
Wage growth continued to slow, with average hourly earnings rising 3.1% year-over-year, a fresh five-year low and below the current rate of inflation.
Sector gains and losses:
Food services and drinking places led all sectors, adding 59,000 jobs, well above their 12-month average monthly gain of 12,000.
Local government education added 42,000 jobs, largely reversing a large loss in July.
Manufacturing continued an upward trend, adding 16,000 jobs and 58,000 since a recent low in December 2025.
Health care added 13,000, below its recent monthly average of 32,000.
Construction added 22,000 jobs.
Information lost 23,000 jobs, with losses in computing infrastructure and data processing, publishing, and broadcasting.
Unemployment:
The unemployment rate held at 4.1%, with 7.0 million people unemployed.
Long-term unemployment (27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.9 million, accounting for 27% of all unemployed people.
The labor force participation rate edged up to 61.6% in August but remains down 0.5 percentage points since January.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons fell by 414,000 to 4.4 million.
Wages and workweek:
Average hourly earnings rose 10 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.75 in August.
Average hourly earnings are up 3.1% over the year, a five-year low.
The average workweek edged up 0.1 hours to 34.4 hours.
Prior month revisions:
Combined, June and July are 55,000 higher than previously reported.
July was revised up by 44,000, from a loss of 23,000 to a gain of 21,000, while June was revised up by 11,000, from 20,000 to 31,000.
Read more via Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNN
Private employers added just 38,000 jobs in August, the slowest month since January, according to ADP. The number came in below the consensus estimate of 47,000 and down from a revised 46,000 in July.
Sector breakdown:
Education and health services led all sectors, adding 45,000 jobs.
Leisure and hospitality added 16,000; construction added 12,000.
Manufacturing shed 17,000 jobs; professional and business services lost 16,000.
Natural resources and mining and trade, transportation, and utilities each declined by 5,000.
By size and region:
Large employers (500+ workers) accounted for nearly all of the gains, adding 34,000 jobs; small employers (fewer than 50 workers) added 3,000.
The Northeast led regionally with 38,000 jobs added; the West declined by 8,000.
Pay growth:
Base pay for all workers rose 3.2% year-over-year; gross pay rose 4.7%.
Job-stayers saw base pay grow 3.0% and gross pay grow 4.4%, both unchanged from July.
Job-changers saw base pay grow 4.7% and gross pay grow 7.3%, the latter down slightly from 7.5% in July.
Pay growth has been decelerating for four years; among lower-paid workers, base pay growth is now slower than pre-pandemic levels.
Pay can tell us a lot about today's choppy hiring. To understand hiring patterns, you have to look deeply into where pay growth is accelerating, where it's slowing, and for whom."
Read more via ADP, CNBC
The labor market held its low-hire, low-fire pattern in July, with job openings edging higher and layoffs falling to their lowest point since January.
Total job openings rose to 7.27 million, up from a revised 7.18 million in June, with the increase led by durable goods manufacturing, state and local government (excluding education), and healthcare and social assistance.
Manufacturing openings climbed to their highest level since December 2023; leisure and hospitality openings fell to their lowest since 2021.
Layoffs and discharges held at 1.7 million, a six-month low; manufacturing dismissals were the lowest in more than five years.
Total hires were little changed at 5.1 million, down from 5.3 million in June; hires in professional and business services fell by 188,000.
The quits rate slipped to 1.9%, with 3.1 million workers leaving jobs voluntarily, suggesting workers are staying put rather than seeking new opportunities.
The openings-to-unemployed ratio held at roughly 1.1 vacancies per jobseeker, down from a peak of 2-to-1 in 2022.
The labor market is back in the 'low fire, low hire' mode. Companies are growing cautious as the war in Iran drags on and borrowing costs have spiked."
June revisions: Job openings for June were revised down by 177,000 to 7.18 million; hires revised down by 16,000 to 5.3 million; layoffs revised up by 19,000 to 1.8 million.
Read more via Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bloomberg, Quartz
U.S. employers announced 52,881 job cuts in August, down 38% from August 2025 and the lowest August total since 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Month-over-month, cuts rose 58% from July's 33,429, a reminder that labor market trends rarely move in a straight line.
Restructuring was the leading driver of cuts in August, accounting for 16,173 announcements; AI-related cuts, which had led the category for five consecutive months, fell to fourth place at 3,462.
Consumer products led all sectors with 10,057 cuts, driven largely by announcements from Procter & Gamble and Estée Lauder; food producers came in second at 7,982, tied largely to Tyson Foods navigating a cattle shortage.
Employers announced 12,325 new positions in August, down 23% from July but the highest August hiring total since 2022.
Through the first eight months of 2026, U.S. employers have announced 529,914 total job cuts, 41% below the pace set during the same period in 2025.
Read more via Seeking Alpha
Six of the ten fastest-growing U.S. occupations projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics over the next decade fall under healthcare and social assistance, driven by an aging population and rising rates of chronic conditions and behavioral health disorders.
Nurse practitioners lead in percentage growth, with roughly 137,800 jobs projected from 2025 to 2035; medical and health services managers lead in raw numbers, with an estimated 155,100 jobs added.
Two computer and math occupations also make the list: data scientists (approximately 95,400 jobs added) and computer and information research scientists (roughly 8,400); both carry a "very high" relative AI exposure rating from BLS, though the agency notes that does not predict employment decline.
The remaining two roles are in renewable energy: solar photovoltaic installers and wind turbine service technicians, driven in part by electricity demand from AI infrastructure and data centers; raw job numbers for both are less than 15,000 combined.
Overall U.S. employment is projected to grow 3.5% from 2025 to 2035, from 170.3 million to 176.2 million jobs, well below the 10.9% growth seen from 2015 to 2025.
Federal government jobs are projected to decline 3.4% over the decade; retail trade is expected to decline 0.2%.
Read more via CNBC
A new Lightcast report establishes the first standardized definition of the skilled trades, identifying 135 occupations and finding that the sector faces roughly three job openings for every person completing a relevant training program.
Approximately 20 million U.S. jobs fall within the skilled trades, representing 9% of total employment, with an estimated 2.1 million openings each year.
The talent gap is estimated at 1.3 million workers; seven of the 10 most in-demand skilled-trade occupations already face significant labor shortages.
Retirements account for roughly 40% of annual openings; more than one quarter of skilled-trade workers are age 55 or older, meaning demographic pressure is set to deepen.
Data center growth alone has added a net 315,000 skilled-trade workers over the past five years, intensifying demand on an already tight market.
Skilled-trade jobs pay a 31% wage premium over the median for other non-degree occupations, and roughly one in three skilled-trade workers moves into a manager or executive role.
More than 70% of skilled-trade occupations have an AI exposure score below 30%, reflecting high job security relative to the broader labor market.
Read more via Lightcast
Employers predict healthcare cost trend increases will come in at a median of 9.2% in 2027, potentially offset to 8% with plan design changes, according to Business Group on Health's annual employer healthcare strategy survey of 127 large employers covering more than 11 million people globally.
A median 8.5% trend is expected for 2026, potentially reducing to 7% after plan changes; if 2026 and 2027 projections hold, healthcare costs could rise a cumulative 76% in just 10 years, about double the rate of general inflation.
Three consecutive years of actual costs exceeding employer predictions, with each successive forecast miss being larger than the one before, has drawn CFOs and senior leaders into healthcare strategy in new ways.
Cancer is the top condition driving healthcare spending for the fifth straight year, cited by 70% of respondents as their number one cost driver in 2026, up from 58% in 2025.
Pharmacy now represents 25% of employers' total healthcare spend, with drug costs estimated to rise 12% in 2026; fewer employers are covering GLP-1s for obesity, with coverage dropping from 72% in 2025 to 60% in 2026.
To manage costs, 71% of employers are using the RFP process to secure lower pricing, 60% are elevating prevention and primary care, and 58% are eliminating underperforming vendors.
Read more via Business Group on Health, Aon
The share of Americans working or looking for work has fallen at one of the fastest rates in nearly 80 years of data, and economists are debating whether the causes are structural or temporary.
The labor force participation rate has declined 0.7 percentage points since January, a drop that is difficult to explain by aging alone, which typically accounts for roughly 0.2 percentage points per year.
One factor is the aging workforce: Bank of America economists link accelerating retirements in part to a 35%-plus increase in the S&P 500 over the past two years, which has made retirement more financially viable for many workers.
The Trump administration's immigration crackdown is also a factor, as foreign-born workers participate in the labor force at a higher rate than native-born workers (roughly 66% vs. 61%), so fewer entrants mechanically lowers the average.
Some economists attribute part of the decline to seasonal adjustment distortions, which could reverse later in the year and push the unemployment rate higher even without a wave of layoffs.
A final possibility is weak hiring demand, particularly notable in the prime working-age population (25 to 54), whose participation rate fell 0.6 percentage points in June before partially rebounding.
If the decline reflects persistent factors like aging and immigration, unemployment could stay low without much job growth; if temporary factors are more to blame, the unemployment rate could rise in the months ahead.
Read more via Bloomberg
Rising oil prices tied to the U.S.-Iran war are pushing up inflation expectations and bond yields worldwide, with direct implications for employer costs and workforce planning.
Brent crude was trading at $95 per barrel as of Wednesday, up from the low $80s a month ago; diesel futures hit an all-time high of $4.73 per gallon.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was hovering around 4.8%, after touching its highest level in nearly three years; government bond yields in the U.K., Germany, and Japan also hit multiyear highs.
Higher energy prices are driving up costs across the economy, affecting everything grown or transported through the U.S.
The correlation between oil prices and the 10-year Treasury yield is near its strongest in five years, while the stock-oil correlation is near its most negative.
Read more via Axios
Canada: The Canadian economy shed 42,000 jobs in August, missing expectations for a gain of 15,000 and ending a four-month stretch that had added 181,000 positions. The unemployment rate held steady at 6.4%. The public sector accounted for 20,000 of the losses, its third straight month of declines, while manufacturing was a surprise bright spot, adding 22,000 jobs despite ongoing U.S. tariff pressure. Annual wage growth cooled sharply to 2%, the lowest since November 2017. Economists cautioned that one soft month shouldn't define the labor market, but noted the data adds to signs that growth is slowing heading into a renewed trade war with the U.S. (Yahoo Finance)
Germany: Volkswagen approved the most sweeping restructuring in its 89-year history, announcing plans to cut approximately 50,000 additional jobs as it contends with surging Chinese competition, high energy costs, and a costly transition to electric vehicles. The cuts bring the company's total planned workforce reductions to roughly 100,000. The fate of four German factories targeted for possible closure remains unresolved, though the company is exploring potential conversion for defense industry use. Labor union IG Metall backed the plan after a tense standoff with management. (The New York Times)
Iceland: Iceland ranked among the highest countries in Europe for hourly labor costs in 2025, according to Eurostat data. The measure covers total employer costs including wages, social contributions, and other non-wage expenses, making it a gauge of what labor costs employers rather than what workers take home. Eurostat notes that exchange rate fluctuations affect Iceland's relative position in euro-denominated comparisons. (Iceland Review)
Taiwan: Nearly all professionals (96%) in Taiwan are actively using AI at work, above the 93% average across 10 Asian markets surveyed by Robert Walters. Unlike regional peers who lean on AI primarily for content creation, Taiwan professionals most commonly use it for predictive analytics and decision support (62%). Over half of Taiwan employers (53%) expect at least a quarter of their workforce will require reskilling over the next five years, and 76% identify critical thinking and fact-checking as among the most important skills in an AI-driven workplace. (Staffing Industry Analysts)
United Kingdom: Nearly one million young people (981,000) in the UK were not in work, education, or training in the second quarter of 2026, up 30,000 from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics. An estimated 13% of all people aged 16 to 24 were NEET, with young men (13.7%) faring worse than young women (12.3%). Of the total, 393,000 were unemployed and actively seeking work, while 588,000 were economically inactive. (Staffing Industry Analysts)
