Today’s monthly jobs report from the Department of Labor was not the numbers the economy needed to start off September. The August numbers missed expectations and the unemployment rate barely moved.
In the month of August, only 142,000 jobs were added. That’s a sizeable drop from the 209,000 jobs originally reported in July. In addition, the unemployment rate was mostly unchanged, dipping to 6.1 percent. The total number of unemployed people also stayed mostly the same at 9.6 million. Still, the unemployment rate is down 1.1 percent over the year.
The long-term employment number - which includes people without jobs for 27 weeks or more - dropped by 192,000 to 3 million. They make up 31.2 percent of the unemployed.
The jobs that were added in August were mostly thanks to professional and business services, which added 47,000 in the month. Construction was one of the sectors that showed growth, adding 20,000 jobs. Manufacturing lost jobs, especially in the motor vehicles and parts sector.
The situation in Massachusetts with Market Basket actually had an impact on the food and beverage industry, which lost 17,000 jobs.
Finally, the labor department did at least revise the numbers for June and July up, which makes the August report look even more bleak. July saw 212,000 jobs added, while 298,000 jobs were added in June.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com
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