August Jobs Report: U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Surge by 162,000 as Unemployment Holds Steady
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The U.S. labor market demonstrated unexpected strength in August, adding 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs—far surpassing the average monthly gain of 31,000 seen over the prior 12 months. According to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate remained stable at 4.1%, signaling continued resilience across major economic sectors.
In addition to strong monthly job gains, prior months saw significant upward revisions: June employment was revised up by 11,000 to +31,000, and July was revised up by 44,000 to +21,000, combining for 55,000 more jobs than previously recorded.
Key Takeaways at a Glance
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Total Nonfarm Payrolls: +162,000 in August.
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Unemployment Rate: Unchanged at 4.1% (7.0 million unemployed).
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Labor Force Participation: Edged up to 61.6%.
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Average Hourly Earnings: Rose 0.3% to $37.75 (+3.1% year-over-year).
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Top Growing Sectors: Food Services (+59,000), Local Government Education (+42,000), Construction (+22,000).
Industry Breakdown: Where Jobs Were Added and Lost
Winners: Hospitality, Education, and Manufacturing
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Food Services and Drinking Places: Led job growth with 59,000 positions added, significantly outperforming its 12-month average monthly gain of 12,000.
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Local Government Education: Rebounded with 42,000 new jobs, largely offsetting losses from the previous month.
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Manufacturing: Continued a steady recovery, adding 16,000 jobs—bringing total gains since December 2025 to 58,000. Machinery and fabricated metal product manufacturing each contributed +6,000 positions.
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Health Care & Construction: Health care added 13,000 jobs (driven by home health care at +11,000 and hospitals at +8,000), while construction rose by 22,000.
Losers: Information Sector Decline
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Information Industry: Shed 23,000 jobs in August, accelerating from its 12-month average loss rate of 8,000 per month. Declines were driven by computing infrastructure/web hosting (-8,000), publishing (-7,000), and broadcasting/content providers (-5,000).
Household Data & Labor Force Indicators
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Demographic Rates: The unemployment rate for Asian workers dropped to 3.2%, while rates remained stable for White (3.7%), Hispanic (4.8%), Black (6.0%), adult men (4.0%), and adult women (3.5%). Teen unemployment rose slightly to 14.1%.
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Underemployment Improvements: The number of individuals working part-time for economic reasons dropped sharply by 414,000 down to 4.4 million.
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Long-Term Unemployment: Stood at 1.9 million, representing 27.0% of all unemployed persons.
Wages and Workweek Trends
Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm employees increased by 10 cents (0.3%) to $37.75, marking a 3.1% annual growth rate. For production and nonsupervisory workers, average hourly earnings rose by 11 cents to $32.53.
The average workweek edged up slightly by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours overall, with manufacturing workweeks expanding to 40.5 hours.
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Tags: #JobsReport #USLaborMarket #BLS #Economy #EmploymentData #UnemploymentRate #PayrollGains
