Photo of Brad Neathery in Unsplash
In August 2025, the U.S. economy generated just 22,000 jobs, considerably lower than the nearly 75,000 expected by analysts and much lower than the revised growth in July, which fell from 73,000 to 79,000 jobs. With this report, the unemployment rate rises to 4.3%.
In addition, June saw a loss of 13,000 jobs, the first since the 2020 pandemic.
The 4.3% unemployment rate for August was at its highest level since 2021, reflecting the cooling labor market. According to the official report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate, in absolute terms, changed little in August, standing at 7.4 million unemployed people.
The most dynamic sectors were health and social assistance, which added around 47,000 jobs (31,000 in health care and 16,000 in social assistance). In contrast, manufacturing and wholesale trade lost 12,000 jobs each, construction cut 7,000 jobs, and the federal government eliminated 15,000 positions, a cumulative reduction of nearly 100,000 since January.
Experts such as Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed, warned that this is the weakest labor market seen in 15 years outside of the pandemic. Likewise, analysts at Fitch Ratings considered this indicator to confirm the need for the Federal Reserve to promote interest rate cuts.
The financial market reacted: Treasury yields fell, the dollar fell, and expectations of rate cuts by the Fed at its September meeting soared.
Political controversy was swift. Trump harshly criticized Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, accusing him of acting "too late." Furthermore, amid the scandal over the jobs data, he fired BLS chief Erika McEntarfer and nominated Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni as her replacement, prompting criticism that the report had been politicized.
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