The U.S. economy added 22,000 jobs in August — worse than financial experts had expected — according to the first government report since President Donald Trump dramatically fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer.
The August Jobs Report, published Friday, revealed that the employment market continued to cool in the same month that Trump’s global tariffs took effect.
Unemployment increased to 4.3 percent, the highest level since 2021.
The report is the first since Trump fired McEntarfer after the July jobs report from the non-partisan agency showed a slump in employment figures, implying a downturn in hiring and stagnant growth. An incensed Trump baselessly called those numbers “phony.”
The president downplayed the importance of the report, ahead of new figures emerging Friday, at a White House dinner Thursday night with tech CEOs. Trump said the “real numbers” would be out “in a year from now.”
Economists said the August Jobs Report signaled “the clearest sign yet” of a cooling labor market.
“Fewer job openings, softer wage growth, and longer job searches are signs of a slowdown,” Ger Doyle, regional president at ManpowerGroup, said in a note, CNN reports. “The hiring momentum that kicked off the year has been tempered by uncertainty.”
“August’s Employment Report confirmed that the labor market has headed off a cliff-edge,” Bradley Saunders, a North America economist for Capital Economics, added in a note.
Economist Daniel Zhao warned the U.S. is “heading into turbulence without the soft landing achieved.”
McEntarfer, a Joe Biden appointee, was replaced by a deputy, William Waitrowski, on an acting basis at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump has tapped E.J. Antoni, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, for the job. Antoni must be confirmed by the Senate before taking up the position.
However some economists have warned that U.S. jobs data might no longer be considered trustworthy if it were administered by partisans professionally invested in appeasing the president.
The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because Trump’s policies, including his trade wars, have created uncertainty that leaves managers reluctant to make hiring decisions.
