U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August as unemployment held at 4.1%
U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, according to the federal Employment Situation report released September 4, 2026. The payroll increase was larger than the average monthly gain over the previous year, but the gains were concentrated in selected industries rather than spread evenly across the economy.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported that the labor-force participation rate edged up to 61.6%. Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose 10 cents, or 0.3%, in August and were up 3.1% from a year earlier.
What changed in the August report
The 162,000 increase refers to nonfarm payroll employment, a measure based on the establishment survey of businesses and government agencies. The 4.1% unemployment rate comes from the separate household survey, which asks people about their work and job-search status.
Because the surveys measure different parts of the labor market, their monthly changes do not have to match. In August, the household survey showed that the civilian labor force increased by 683,000 and the number of employed people rose by 569,000.
BLS also revised earlier payroll estimates upward. June employment was revised from a gain of 20,000 to 31,000, while July was revised from a decline of 23,000 to a gain of 21,000. Together, those revisions raised the previously reported June and July total by 55,000 jobs. They do not represent new August hiring; they update earlier estimates using additional reports from businesses and government agencies and revised seasonal factors.
Where hiring increased
Food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs in August, well above the sector’s average monthly gain over the previous year. Local-government education added 42,000 jobs, largely offsetting a decrease in July.
Manufacturing employment rose by 16,000, with gains in machinery and fabricated metal products. Manufacturing employment has increased by 58,000 since a recent low in December 2025.
Health care continued to add jobs, increasing by 13,000. Home health care services and hospitals recorded gains during the month.
Construction employment changed little overall in August despite a reported increase of 22,000 jobs in the BLS establishment data. Within the sector, nonresidential specialty trade contractors continued to trend up, adding 8,000 jobs.
Information jobs declined
The information sector lost 23,000 jobs in August, following average monthly losses of 8,000 over the previous year. The decline included job losses among computing infrastructure providers, data processing and web-hosting businesses, publishing industries, and broadcasting and content providers.
Employment changed little over the month in several other major industries, including retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, professional and business services, and social assistance. That uneven pattern matters for job seekers: a stronger national payroll number does not mean opportunities improved equally in every field or region.
What the numbers mean for workers
The August report points to continued labor-market strength, but it does not show uniform gains across industries. The 3.1% annual increase in average hourly earnings is a national average for private-sector workers. It is not a direct measure of every worker’s take-home pay, and it does not show how wages changed in each occupation or industry.
For households, the combination of steady unemployment and moderate wage growth suggests that employers are still hiring while average pay gains are increasing at a slower pace than during the post-pandemic hiring surge. Workers and job seekers may get a clearer picture by tracking demand in their own industries rather than relying only on the national headline.
What to watch next
The next federal employment report, covering September 2026, is scheduled for release October 2, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. That report will help show whether the August increase was sustained or whether hiring returned to the slower pace seen earlier in the summer.
Sources
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