The August jobs report released Friday indicated a slowdown in jobs added compared to the previous two months. 235,000 jobs were added in August, compared to about 1 million jobs a month in June and July. The video above show President Joe Biden discussing the report.
“While I know some wanted to see a larger number today and so did I, what we’ve seen this year is the continued growth month after month in job creation,” President Biden said. “Our economy grew the first half of this year at the fastest rate in about 40 years.”
The report’s numbers include signs that rising COVID-19 cases are impacting the economy once again. “There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s job report isn’t stronger,” Biden said.
The sectors of the economy where hiring was weakest were mainly those requiring face-to-face contact with the public. After adding 400,000 jobs in both June and July, the employment category that includes restaurants, bars and hotels put up a net zero in terms of jobs in August. Restaurant dining, which had fully recovered earlier this summer, declined to about 9 percent below pre-pandemic levels in August.
Health care and government employers also cut jobs in August. Construction companies lost 3,000 jobs despite strong demand for new homes. Government employers shed 8,000 jobs, mostly because of a sharp decline in local education hiring.
“The delta variant has taken a bigger toll on the job market than many of us had hoped,” Sarah House, a senior economist at Wells Fargo said. “It’s going to take workers longer to come back to the labor market than we expected.”
House went on to say the August jobs report “slams the door” on the prospect of the Fed announcing it will begin withdrawing the extraordinary support for the economy it put in place at the beginning of the pandemic when it meets later this month.
“The measures we’ve taken so far have brought America out of an economic freefall, steadied us and enabled us to grow our economy even as we combat, continue to combat COVID,” Biden said Friday. “The fight against COVID today is far different from the fight we were waging last winter.”
On the plus side for people looking for jobs, since the number of job openings remains at record levels, overall hiring is expected to stay solid in the coming months. Even with the underwhelming job gain in August, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent.
The job listings website Indeed says the number of available jobs grew in August. The big areas of job availability are in information technology and finance, where people can work from home.
The difficulty in filling jobs is forcing more companies to offer higher pay. Hourly wages rose 4.3 percent in August compared to a year earlier.
