August payrolls rise 162,000, well above the 53,000 forecast
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 162,000 August jobs and a 4.1% unemployment rate on Friday, September 4, 2026, versus a Dow Jones consensus of 53,000.
Employers added 162,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, more than three times the Dow Jones consensus of 53,000. It is the last employment count before the Federal Reserve's September 15-16 meeting.
The unemployment rate held at 4.1%, matching the forecast. The hiring figure did not. July is no longer a down month for payrolls. BLS revised that month from a 23,000-job decline to a 21,000 gain and raised June by 11,000, leaving the two months 55,000 higher than reported a month ago.
A gain concentrated in restaurants and schools
BLS said the August increase was larger than the 31,000 average monthly gain over the prior 12 months. The hiring was concentrated. Food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs, well above that industry's 12,000 average monthly gain over the same span. Local government education added 42,000, largely offsetting a decline in July. Those two categories account for 101,000 of the 162,000 gain: restaurants and bars, and a school-hiring rebound. The information industry lost 23,000 jobs.
Average hourly earnings rose 10 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.75, and were up 3.1% from a year earlier. The average workweek for all private employees edged up 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1%, and the number of unemployed people changed little at 7.0 million. In the household survey, employment rose by 569,000 and the labor force rose by 683,000, a mix consistent with an unchanged jobless rate. The labor force participation rate edged up to 61.6%, though it is still down 0.5 percentage point since January. The employment-population ratio was 59.1%.
In a Bloomberg interview Friday, Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors, said the report favors Federal Reserve officials who want to start raising rates. CME FedWatch on Thursday, September 3, priced a roughly even chance of a quarter-point hike at the September meeting. A reading from the tool after Friday's 8:30 a.m. release was not yet available.
Premarket after the print
The first 50 minutes did not reprice U.S. stocks as one move. In premarket trading as of 9:19 a.m. Eastern time Friday, the S&P 500 fund SPY was 0.19% below Thursday's close. The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ was 0.13% higher. The Russell 2000 small-cap fund IWM was 0.50% lower. That is the same split the pre-open market showed before 8:30 a.m.: large-cap technology still bid, small caps not.
The 5-year Treasury yield was at 4.55% as of 9:12 a.m., up 4 basis points from Thursday. The 10-year yield was at 4.78% as of 9:19 a.m., up 2 basis points from Thursday, after trading as high as 4.805%. The 30-year yield was little changed at 5.24%. The fund that holds 20-year and longer Treasuries, TLT, was 0.23% higher in premarket trading.
The cash open is still ahead. What the Fed now has in hand is a labor report that no longer includes a July job loss.
Frequently asked
What was the unemployment rate?
The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%.
Which industries drove the hiring gains?
Growth was concentrated in food services and local government education, which offset losses in the information sector.
How did previous months' employment figures change?
The government revised the previous month's figure from a loss to a gain and also increased the June payroll numbers.