Little Good News In August Jobs Report

The jobs report for August held little good news, with revised numbers for prior months keeping actual net gains for jobs under 100,000. Unemployment fell, but largely due to workers leaving the labor force. Finding a job continues to be difficult and the number of long-term unemployed, and the length of time they have been searching, kept rising. However, a few numbers buried in the report could hold promise for fall numbers: hourly wages rose by five cents an hour and the number of temporary workers increased, which could signal that companies are seeing more demand.