August job growth fell short of expectations, and even health care, the steadiest source of new jobs, lost steam.
U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as unemployment rose to 4.3 percent, the Labor Department said Friday — well below economists’ forecast of 80,000 and July’s gain of 79,000.
Health care has fueled hiring in recent years, but the latest report suggests that momentum may be slowing. The Labor Department said the industry added 31,000 jobs last month, well below its 42,000 monthly average over the past year. Social assistance, which includes child care services, added 16,200 jobs.
Which industries added jobs?
Major industries that added jobs in August 2025 (preliminary data):
- Health care and social assistance: +46,800
- Leisure & hospitality: +28,000
- Other services: +12,000
- Retail trade: +10,500
- Transportation and warehousing: +3,600
Together, health care and social assistance still led all sectors in August, adding 46,800 jobs, but that’s the smallest monthly increase since January 2022, Bloomberg noted. The slowdown is striking, since those roles have accounted for nearly 90 percent of all the private sector jobs added in 2025.
Earlier this week, a separate government report showed that job openings in health care and social assistance plunged by 181,000 in July, the biggest decline of any sector.
An aging population will keep those jobs in high demand over the long run, but the latest data suggests even the labor market’s most resilient areas are slowing.
Which industries cut jobs?
Major industries that shed jobs in August 2025 (preliminary data):
- Professional and business services: -17,000
- Government: -16,000
- Manufacturing: -12,000
- Wholesale trade: -11,700
- Construction: -7,000
Outside of health care, major sectors shed jobs in August. Professional and business service companies cut 17,000 jobs, and construction companies lost 7,000.
Manufacturing jobs fell by 12,000 and are now down by 42,000 since April, a month when President Trump announced sweeping tariffs. The federal government shed an additional 15,000 jobs last month, now down 97,000 since the start of the year.
Revisions from the Labor Department on Friday pointed to further cooling, with 21,000 jobs chopped from June and July payrolls. June now shows a loss of 13,000 jobs, the first monthly losses since December 2020.
Overall, the U.S. economy has created about 75,000 jobs a month so far this year, less than half the 2024 average of 186,000. The three-month average is now just 29,000 jobs per month.
“On a percentage basis have not seen job growth this slow outside of recessionary periods in more than sixty years,” Harvard University economist Jason Furman wrote on the social media platform X.
Will the Federal Reserve cut interest rates?
The weak jobs report makes it likely the Federal Reserve will slash its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting. So far, chair Jerome Powell has been reluctant to do so until the inflationary effects of Trump’s tariff policy are clearer.
Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to lower rates and blasted him on social media after Friday’s jobs report, writing, “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should have lowered rates long ago. As usual, he’s ‘Too Late!'”
Last month, the president fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after an underwhelming jobs report, claiming without evidence that the numbers had been rigged to make him look bad.
Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to replace McEntarfer, but he still needs to be confirmed by the Senate before taking over. For now, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, Bill Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
