Weak: The economy adds only 169,000 jobs in August

The latest unemployment report represents a significant setback

Factory in Detroit
(Image credit: REBECCA COOK/Reuters/Corbis)

The Labor Department on Friday reported that the economy added 169,000 nonfarm jobs in August, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7.3 percent, from 7.4 percent in July. The report, which comes during an uneasy month in Washington, D.C., marks the 35th straight month of job growth, though much of it has been sluggish.

Make that very sluggish. The Labor Department also lowered job gains in June and July by a total of 74,000, bringing July's jobs gains to a paltry 104,000 — the lowest increase in more than a year, and a worrisome sign that the economic recovery is far weaker than previously thought.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Carmel Lobello is the business editor at TheWeek.com. Previously, she was an editor at DeathandTaxesMag.com.