U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in August, while unemployment remained at 4.1%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
August payroll growth exceeded the previous 12-month average of 31,000 jobs a month. Private payrolls rose by 127,000, while government employment increased by 35,000.
June’s gain was revised upward by 11,000 to 31,000. July was revised from a loss of 23,000 to a gain of 21,000, an upward revision of 44,000.
Together, the two months were 55,000 higher than previously reported. Monthly revisions reflect additional reports from businesses and government agencies and recalculated seasonal factors.
The July and August payroll estimates remain preliminary.
Where Jobs Changed
Food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs, compared with an average monthly gain of 12,000 during the previous year.
Local government education added 42,000 jobs, largely offsetting its decline the previous month. Employment in the sector has shown little net change since January 2025.
Manufacturing added 16,000 jobs and has gained 58,000 since a recent low in December 2025. Machinery manufacturing and fabricated metal product manufacturing each added 6,000 jobs in August.
Health care added 13,000 jobs, below its average monthly gain of 32,000 over the previous 12 months. Home health care services added 11,000, while hospitals added 8,000.
Information employment declined by 23,000 after losses averaging 8,000 a month during the previous year. The August losses included 8,000 among computing infrastructure providers, data processors, web hosts and related services.
Publishing lost 7,000 jobs, while broadcasting and content providers lost 5,000.
Construction employment changed little, with an estimated gain of 22,000. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 8,000, similar to their average monthly gain of 6,000 during the previous year.
Other major industries showed little change. They included mining, wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, professional and business services, social assistance and other services.
Wages and Hours
Average hourly earnings for private-sector employees rose 10 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.75. Earnings were 3.1% higher than a year earlier.
Production and nonsupervisory employees recorded an 11-cent increase, also 0.3%, bringing their average hourly earnings to $32.53.
The average private-sector workweek edged up 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. The manufacturing workweek rose by the same amount to 40.5 hours, while overtime remained at 3.1 hours.
The workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees remained at 33.8 hours.
Unemployment and Labor Force
BLS produces the monthly employment report from two surveys. The establishment survey measures payroll employment, hours and earnings, while the household survey measures labor-force status and demographic characteristics.
The number of unemployed people changed little at 7 million. The unemployment rate and the total number of unemployed people also changed little over the year.
About 1.9 million people had been unemployed for at least 27 weeks, little changed from July. They accounted for 27% of all unemployed people.
The unemployment rate for people who are Asian declined to 3.2%. The teenage rate rose to 14.1%, mostly offsetting its decline the previous month.
Rates changed little for adult men at 4%, adult women at 3.5%, White people at 3.7%, Black people at 6% and Hispanic people at 4.8%.
The labor force participation rate edged up to 61.6% but remained 0.5 percentage point below its January level. The employment-population ratio changed little at 59.1%.
The number of people working part time for economic reasons fell by 414,000 to 4.4 million. They wanted full-time employment but had reduced hours or could not find full-time work.
Another 5.7 million people outside the labor force wanted a job. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not actively sought work during the previous four weeks or were unavailable to work.
Among them, 1.7 million were marginally attached to the labor force. That group included 441,000 discouraged workers who believed no jobs were available to them.
The September employment report is scheduled for release Oct. 2 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
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