Unemployment Rose to 3.8% and 187,000 Jobs Were Added in August

The unemployment rate rose to 3.8%, up from 3.5% in July, and job gains eased slightly in August, adding 187,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Key Details: Social assistance, leisure and hospitality, healthcare and construction establishments increased their hiring, while warehousing and transportation employers cut staff. This reflected the impact of the shutdown of trucking company Yellow Corporation.

Key Quote: “The labor market is back to its normal pre-pandemic climate,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “The question going forward is whether this will be the sustainable long-term condition of the labor market or whether we will cross below the pre-pandemic level to something slower and cooler.”

For Context: On August 25th, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pushed for interest rates to remain steady for now, but stated he would be open to raising them later in 2023 if inflation does not continue to decline. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal (Center bias) reported last month that "wages have outpaced inflation in recent months."

How the Media Covered it: Sources on the right and left noted that hiring had eased over the summer, but also noted that the prior several months had seen higher than expected job numbers.