02 September, 2017
US job growth slowed in the month of August, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor.
A second report on Friday from the Institute for Supply Management showed its factory activity index soared to 58.8 in August, the highest reading since April 2011, from 56.3 in July.
This was a weaker than expected report.
The U.S. economy created 156,000 jobs in August versus a projection of 180,000. The unemployment rate, derived from separate survey of households, rose to 4.4 percent.
The data mark the seventh straight August that the government's initial payrolls print has missed the median estimate of economists; the figure has been revised upward in five of the past six years.
Meanwhile, employment gains for June was revised down to 210,000 from 231,000 previously reported, and job gains in July was revised lower to 189,000 from 209,000.
"The economy can't create more jobs as there is no one left to hire at this late stage of the recovery with the expansion starting its ninth year in July", said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in NY. Manufacturing was bright spot, adding 36,000 jobs, matching a five-year high. He believes the unemployment rate, should move slightly lower over the rest of 2017 and into 2018.
Taken at face value, the August employment report was on the soft side of the trend of the past several years.
The pace of US job growth slowed in August while the unemployment rate edged up, the Labor Department reported on Friday. 'As the USA nears full employment, logic says that job gains should slow, so in reality, it would take consistently horrendous payrolls data for the Fed to really bat an eye-lid'. "We've learned not to panic because of one month's set of numbers".
The US dollar index is coming off its sixth consecutive monthly decline, although August's drop of 0.2 per cent was the smallest since the streak began in March.
Persistently sluggish wage growth could, however, make the USA central bank cautious about raising interest rates again this year.
Employment in the sector could be buoyed by an anticipated spike in demand for automobiles as residents in the Houston area replace flood-damaged vehicles.
Mnuchin also said that tropical storm Harvey which ravaged Texas could bring forward the deadline by which the nation's debt ceiling needs to be raised.
