Total nonfarm payroll rose by 162,000 in August, largely driven by stronger-than-expected gains in the “food services and drinking places” category. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised job numbers for June and July upward; July, which previously saw a loss of 23,000 jobs, was instead revised to show a gain of 21,000 jobs.
“The labor market is in a fragile state,” Nicole Bachaud, ZipRecruiter economist, said in a statement. “Both employers and workers are showing increased sensitivity to inflation, interest rates, and geopolitical tensions. While the August report and prior months’ revisions are encouraging signs, we are not yet seeing stable momentum.”
General hiring trends indicate that employers are hiring because “the roles and capabilities they need are changing,” Ger Doyle, regional president of North America at ManpowerGroup, said in a statement.
“The whiplash is hard to ignore,” Glassdoor’s Chief Economist Daniel Zhao said in a statement. “A possible culprit is slower labor force growth: as fewer workers enter the job market each month, hiring settles onto a lower baseline, and from there it takes only a small move to flip a month from job gains to job losses and back again.”
Notably, hiring managers recently surveyed by Express Employment Professionals and The Harris Poll said that it is taking longer to fill open positions compared to two years ago. Just over one-fourth of those surveyed said the process takes at least four weeks when factoring in resume reviews, interviews and final decision-making.