The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its August jobs details on Friday revealing a much weaker than expected 235,000 jobs while the unemployment rate went down .2 percent from July to reach 5.2 percent, missing the expected job growth by around 500,000.
BIG miss in the August jobs report, +235k vs. +720k estimated
Notably, a big loss in restaurant/hotel jobs. That's been a bellwether throughout the pandemic pic.twitter.com/OJePFranFe
— Dan Mika (@DanMikaTweets) September 3, 2021
While it was thought that the unemployment rate would lower to 5.2 percent, August’s jobs are a huge miss from the 720,000+ jobs economists believed would be added.
“Total nonfarm payroll increased by 235,000 in the month of August, and unemployment recipients lowered by 0.2 percentage point to get to 5.2 percent, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics said today. So far in 2021, monthly job growth was 586,000 on average. In August, notable job increases happened in professional and business services, warehousing and transportation, private education, manufacturing, and other sectors. Employment inside retail went down over the month.”
The reported job losses within retail including with restaurants could be in part explained by the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus and the restrictions many places put back into place. The trend of such losses for face-to-face jobs might continue as vaccine mandates like the one rolling out in NY City restricting who can work or shop.
The big red flag in the August jobs report: Job LOSSES in retail and restaurants — likely b/c of the Delta variant.
Retail: -29,000 jobs
Restaurants: -42,000Job gains elsewhere:
Biz: +74,000 jobs
Warehouse: +53,000
Manufacturing: +37,000
Entertainment: +36,000
IT: +17,000— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) September 3, 2021
With no path to spin these results as anything but a huge miss for the Biden White House, even The Washington Post said that August’s numbers were “lackluster.”
“These numbers are a big disappointment,” said CNN. “In August, Job growth went down dramatically.”
“235,000 jobs were added, but that is a huge miss,” said Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans. “The consensus was for over 700,000, even the rumored numbers of a possible disappointment were only 400,000 or maybe 500,000 so this is a big disappointment.”
CNN on the August jobs report "a BIG disappointment" and a "big miss." pic.twitter.com/lSSVA7O8oW
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) September 3, 2021
On CNBC, the anchors pointed to the job growth during the time that Biden team members traveled the nation touting the president’s pledge to build back better was “really weak,” saying that “this is horrible news… for the economy.”
.@CNBC's @BeckyQuick on the August jobs report:
"235,000 vs the 720 that was anticipated. That's a really weak number."
"This is terrible news for what it means for the real economy." pic.twitter.com/Y0wjG3CDOR
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) September 3, 2021
August’s jobs numbers comes as Americans keep seeing prices rise because of inflation that has proved persistent even with the Biden White House’s claims that such increases are only temporary. And despite Americans’ wages going up, Biden’s inflation-causing policies mean many people have less purchasing power than they did under Trump.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
