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The job market continues to expand at a healthy clip as U.S. heads into Labor Day

By: Scott Horsley | NPR
Posted on: Friday, September 1, 2023

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WASHINGTON (NPR) — The job market is holding steady as the country heads into the Labor Day weekend.

A 'Now Hiring' sign is displayed outside a check cashing shop in Los Angeles on June 2, 2023. — A ‘Now Hiring’ sign is displayed outside a check cashing shop in Los Angeles on June 2, 2023. Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%. [Mario Tama | Getty Images]

Employers added 187,000 positions to the job market last month, marking a modest pickup from the previous month, the Labor Department said on Friday, with health care, hospitality, and construction among the sectors that added the most jobs.

Trucking, however, showed a loss of jobs, due to the shutdown of the Yellow trucking company. Employment in movie production was also down as a result of the writers’ and actors’ strikes..

The unemployment rate rose in August to 3.8 percent, though that was mainly because more than 700,000 new people joined or re-joined the workforce.

Meanwhile, job market gains for June and July were revised down by a total of 110,000 jobs.

The labor market has shown gradual cooling in recent month, but workers are still in strong demand.

Average wages over the last year are up 4.3%, outpacing inflation.

The data comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting later this month.

The Fed has been raising interest rates aggressively in order to cool down inflation and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said policy makers are ready to raise them more if needed.