- The US economy added 1.37 million jobs in August, and the unemployment rate declined to 8.4%, the Labor Department reported Friday.
- While the report was stronger than economists expected, it also showed that the pace of the labor market recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has continued to slow down.
- Here are seven charts that break down the report, showing how far the labor market recovery has come and how far there is to go.
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The August jobs report yet again showed that while the US labor market is recovering from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic, the pace is slowing and there’s still a long way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels.
The US economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.4%, the Labor Department reported Friday. So far, the US economy has recovered 48% of jobs from pre-coronavirus levels.
“Progress is clearly being made but there are still 11.5 million people who are out of a job as a result of the COVID shock,” said Michelle Meyer, US economist at Bank of America, in a Friday note.
And, the overall pace of job gains slowed in August from previous months. “The private sector only added 1.0 million jobs which shows a deceleration from the recent pace of job creation,” said Meyer. “Clearly there is still more work to be done to fully heal the labor market.”
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Provided below are seven charts breaking down the most important data points in the August jobs report.
