AFP, Washington :
The US labor market slowed precipitously in August but continued a six-year streak of monthly job creation, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department.
The economy added 151,000 new positions for the month, a sharp drop from July’s revised total of 275,000 new non-farm positions and also well below analyst expectations.
Leading up to Friday’s disclosure, markets had been intently awaiting the new numbers as a signal of looming interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
However, it was not immediately clear how August’s employment results were likely to influence the Fed’s thinking. Analysts disagreed as to whether the jobs numbers presaged a rate hike as soon as this month.
As August’s added jobs were easily absorbed by the growth in the size of the labor force, the results appeared to tread water: The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 percent for the third month in a row. The number of long-term unemployed was also unchanged at 2 million people.
Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit, said the figures implied that unemployment was likely to remain at that level in the near-term, pointing to a “a steady, if unexciting, cruise speed” for economic growth of between 2 and 2.5 percent.
The US labor market slowed precipitously in August but continued a six-year streak of monthly job creation, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department.
The economy added 151,000 new positions for the month, a sharp drop from July’s revised total of 275,000 new non-farm positions and also well below analyst expectations.
Leading up to Friday’s disclosure, markets had been intently awaiting the new numbers as a signal of looming interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
However, it was not immediately clear how August’s employment results were likely to influence the Fed’s thinking. Analysts disagreed as to whether the jobs numbers presaged a rate hike as soon as this month.
As August’s added jobs were easily absorbed by the growth in the size of the labor force, the results appeared to tread water: The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 percent for the third month in a row. The number of long-term unemployed was also unchanged at 2 million people.
Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit, said the figures implied that unemployment was likely to remain at that level in the near-term, pointing to a “a steady, if unexciting, cruise speed” for economic growth of between 2 and 2.5 percent.
