Job Growth Cooled This Summer, Unemployment Jumped in August

​The U.S. labor market is definitely cooling. Employers created 187,000 new jobs in August and monthly employment totals were downgraded by a combined 110,000 in June and July, according to the latest employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Over the summer, 150,000 jobs were added on average each month, down from a 238,000 average gain in the spring. And current job growth is well below the 400,000 average monthly gain in 2022.

The pace of job creation is starting to more closely resemble 2019, before the pandemic labor market led first to tremendous job losses and then to big monthly job gains during the recovery.

“After red-hot post-pandemic hiring, we are seeing a slow glide into a cooler labor market this Labor Day weekend,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president and chief commercial officer of ManpowerGroup. “With pandemic paranoia about hiring lingering, companies are continuing to hold onto their workers, remembering how hard it was to rehire.”

The labor market overall is at “an ideal cruising altitude,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “It’s high enough to keep the unemployment rate low while creating more opportunities for workers to come in off the sidelines, but low enough so as not to cause a resurgence of inflation.”

“The labor market remains solid,” agreed Nick Bunker, head of Economic Research at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Payroll gains continue to slow down, wage growth is moderating slowly, and labor force participation…