Jobs grew by 130,000 in August as blue-collar hiring slowed

FAN Editor

“Really Good Jobs Numbers!” President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday. They were good, but not “really good.”

Employers hired 130,000 people in August, the Labor Department said Friday in its monthly employment report. That’s less than the 160,000 economists were predicting but still indicates an expanding economy.

The unemployment rate stayed flat, at 3.7%, still near historic lows.

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Wage growth kept its steady pace, with average hourly earnings increasing 3.2% from the previous August.

The federal government hired 28,000 people last month, mostly in preparation for the 2020 Census. Private sector employers added 96,000 jobs — not great, but not bad for a 10-year recovery still chugging away.

June and July saw 20,000 fewer jobs created than the government’s initial estimates for the two months combined. In addition, the pace of job creation this year has slowed, with the economy adding an average of 165,000 jobs each month, down from 223,000 last year.

Blue-collar industries, including manufacturing, construction and transportation and warehousing stayed flat or slowed slightly, while mining shed jobs. That reflects the contraction in manufacturing, which is suffering in the U.S.-China trade war. A separate report this week showed the sector’s first decline in three years.

About that tweet: On Thursday, the payroll processor ADP reported that private employers added a hefty 195,000 jobs in August — likely the statistic Mr. Trump referred to in his tweet Thursday morning not long after the markets opened.

This is a developing story.

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