The US unemployment rate increased last month, in another sign an overheated job market is returning to room temperature.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent in August, up from 3.5 percent in July and the highest since February 2022, the Labor Department said in its employment situation report on Friday.
Employers added 187,000 new jobs last month, more than economists had expected, and up from 157,000 in July, a figure that was revised downward by 30,000.
But the rising unemployment rate signaled that job seekers were spending more time between positions, as the number of openings dropped from the dizzying levels seen last year, when employers were desperate for labor.
‘We are beginning to see this slow glide into a cooler labor market,’ said Becky Frankiewicz, chief commercial officer at the employment firm ManpowerGroup. ‘Make no mistake: Demand is cooling off. … But it’s not a freefall.’
The US unemployment rate increased last month, in another sign an overheated job market is returning to room temperature
The labor force participation rate, a measure of how much of the population is working or seeking work, increased to 62.8 percent, finally reaching a level in line with figures recorded before the pandemic.
Signs of a cooling labor market should be welcome by the Federal Reserve, which has been trying to tame inflation with a series of 11 interest rate hikes.
The Fed is hoping to achieve a rare ‘soft landing,’ in which it would manage to slow hiring and growth enough to cool price increases without tipping the world´s largest economy into a recession.
Economists have long been skeptical that the Fed’s policymakers would succeed, but optimism has been growing in recent months.
Developing story, more to follow.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk