The Bureau of Labor Statistics report for August has been released showing 130,000 new jobs. That number falls well short of the 160,000 predicated for the month. In addition, the BLS again revised previous months downward, shaving another 20,000 jobs from June and July numbers.
On Thursday, Donald Trump tweeted about “really good jobs numbers!” leading many to believe that the August numbers would over-perform expectations and driving a temporary spike in stock prices. That turns out to not be the case. Nonfarm payrolls added 130,000 jobs vs. 160,000 expected. The unemployment rate remained at 3.7%. Average hourly earnings were up slightly with a 0.4% increase.
One section that is under particular scrutiny: retail jobs dropped by another 11,000 in August. That’s the seventh straight month of losses in that area and signal a weakness in retail sales.
The 130,000 jobs in August followed a report of 164,000 seasonally adjusted new jobs in July. At that time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised June and May down by 41,000.