US added just 22,000 jobs in August, unemployment rose to 4.3% as slowdown continues

In a sign of stalling labour market, the US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August — less than a third of projected job growth.

In yet another poor month, the US economy added just 22,000 non-farm jobs compared to the projection of 75,000 jobs, and the unemployment rose to 4.3 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) report released on Friday.

Over the past three months, the US economy has just added 8,000 new jobs a month, according to an analysis of BLS’ reports by Yahoo Finance.

The damning findings have come at a time when President Donald Trump has unapologetically doubled down on his tariffs, mass firing of government workers, cancellation of government contracts, and crackdown on immigrants. Experts had long said that tariffs, mass-firings, and immigration crackdown could slow jobs growth, economic growth, and raise inflation, potentially leading to a condition called stagflation where recessionary and inflationary pressures coexist.

However, the report said the economy added 79,000 new jobs in July in an upward revision from 73,000 jobs that were originally reported in last month’s report.

In July, the BLS’ jobs report laid bare the US jobs crisis. It revised May’s new jobs to 19,000 from 144,000 June’s new jobs to 14,000 from 147,000 initially reported.

The poor jobs reports are just one of the worsening economic metrics. Nearly all alarm bells are ringing in the United States.

In July, the last month for which data is available, the core inflation rose 3.1 per cent year-on-year at the highest rate in six months.

Separately, Mark Zandi, the Chief Economist at Moody’s, has warned that a third of American states are already in recession. The Moody’s has also raised the odds of recession in the United States in the next 12 months to 49 per cent.