WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in August to 8.4% from 10.2% in July, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.
Employers added 1.4 million jobs last month, down from 1.7 million in July and the fewest since hiring resumed in May. The economy has recovered barely half the 22 million jobs that vanished when the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the nation in early spring.
“The fact that employment is settling into a trend of slower, grinding growth is worrisome for the broader recovery,” said Lydia Boussour, an economist at Oxford Economics. Friday’s jobs report “confirms that the labor market has entered a frustratingly slower second phase of the recovery.”
Read the full Labor Department report here
This is a developing story.