The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Employment Situation Summary on September 6. The data showed that unemployment dropped from 4.3% in July to 4.2% in August.
Unemployment among all Black workers decreased from 6.3% in July to 6.1% in August, along with labor force participation. Black men, however, experienced a bigger drop in unemployment, from 6.6% to 5.9%.
The BLS’s report included other data showing that employers added 142,000 jobs to the labor market, 19,000 jobs short of experts’ predictions.
Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist for U.S. Bank, says, “The payroll numbers were weaker than expected, but when you look deeper into the numbers and other economic data which is holding up well, there’s not reason to panic.”
With recession fears still intact, Kory Kantenga, head of Economics for the Americas at LinkedIn, predicts that the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this month is a “done deal.” “I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see a [half-point] rate cut, because the report wasn’t so bad to justify the Fed moving more aggressively.”