U.S. Payrolls Rise 162,000 in August as Unemployment Holds at 4.1%

U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, while unemployment held at 4.1%, giving the monthly payroll figure a clear pickup from the subdued pace seen over the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that the gain was higher than the average increase of 31,000 jobs a month over the previous 12 months.

August also brought sizable upward revisions to the prior two months. June payroll growth was raised from 20,000 to 31,000, while July was revised from a loss of 23,000 to a gain of 21,000. Those changes added 55,000 jobs to the previously reported total for June and July, although the three-month average through August was still about 71,000 jobs a month.

In the August Employment Situation report, BLS said the number of unemployed people changed little at 7.0 million. The report combines two separate surveys: the establishment survey supplies the payroll, hours and earnings figures, while the household survey produces the unemployment rate and other measures of labor-force status.

Restaurant hiring and local schools lead August gains

Food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs in August, far above that industry’s average monthly gain of 12,000 over the prior 12 months. Local government education added another 42,000 jobs, largely offsetting a decline in July. BLS noted that employment in local government education has shown little net change since January 2025, so the August increase partly reflects the month-to-month movement within a sector that has been broadly flat over a longer period.

Manufacturing employment continued to trend higher, adding 16,000 jobs in August and bringing the increase since a recent low in December 2025 to 58,000. Machinery manufacturing and fabricated metal products each added 6,000 jobs. Health care employment rose by 13,000, but that was slower than its average monthly gain of 32,000 over the prior year. Home health care services added 11,000 positions and hospitals added 8,000.

Information was the clearest weak spot among the industries highlighted by BLS, losing 23,000 jobs after declines that had averaged 8,000 a month over the previous 12 months. Computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting and related services lost 8,000 jobs, publishing industries lost 7,000 and broadcasting and content providers lost 5,000. Construction employment rose by 22,000, which BLS described as little changed, while several other major industries also showed little movement.

Participation edges up while unemployment stays steady

The unemployment rate remained at 4.1% in August, unchanged from July, while the labor-force participation rate edged up to 61.6% from 61.4%. Participation was still 0.5 percentage point below its January level. The employment-population ratio rose to 59.1% from 58.9%, a change BLS characterized as little changed over the month and since January.

Household-survey estimates put the August increase in employment at 569,000 and growth in the labor force at 683,000. Those figures should not be read with the same precision as the establishment-survey payroll count. BLS says an over-the-month household employment change of about 650,000 is needed to be statistically significant, compared with about 122,000 for the establishment survey’s payroll measure.

Some measures of labor-market slack improved. The number of people working part time for economic reasons fell by 414,000 to 4.4 million. These workers wanted full-time employment but were working reduced hours or could not find a full-time job. Long-term unemployment, defined as being jobless for 27 weeks or more, changed little at 1.9 million and accounted for 27.0% of all unemployed people.

Pay grows 3.1% from a year earlier as prior months improve

Average hourly earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 10 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.75 in August. Earnings were 3.1% higher than a year earlier. For private-sector production and nonsupervisory workers, average hourly earnings rose by 11 cents to $32.53. The average workweek for all private employees edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours, while the manufacturing workweek increased to 40.5 hours and factory overtime held at 3.1 hours.

Upward revisions to June and July change the picture of the slowdown that preceded August. June is now estimated at a 31,000 gain rather than 20,000, and July at a 21,000 gain rather than a 23,000 decline. Even after those revisions and the stronger August figure, the average gain for the latest three months was 71,000, well below the 162,000 headline for August itself.

A separate BLS report on labor turnover, released September 1, showed little change in July job openings, hires and separations. Job openings stood at 7.3 million, while hires and total separations were both 5.1 million. Quits were 3.1 million and layoffs and discharges were 1.7 million. Those figures cover July rather than August, and the JOLTS release characterized job openings, hires and total separations as little changed over the month.

August payroll figures are preliminary and can be revised as additional employer reports arrive and seasonal factors are recalculated. BLS is scheduled to publish the Employment Situation for September on October 2 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, when August payrolls will receive their first revision and another month of hiring, unemployment and wage data will be available.