With new hiring from government, retail, education and healthcare, August saw the unemployment rate dropping from 10.2 percent a month earlier to 8.4 percent while payroll increased by about 1.3 million during the month.
These hiring trends revealed that the economy is rebounding from the recent downturn spurred by the pandemic. In fact, the August unemployment rate was the lowest since the global pandemic struck the United States in March, according to the Labor Department.
Expectations from economists were that the unemployment rate would drop from 10.2 percent to 9.8 percent over the course of the month, so the 8.4 percent represented positive news. In addition, workers temporarily laid off declined to 6.2 million, a sharp contrast from more than 18 million in April. Permanent job losses increased to 3.4 million.
In particular, government hiring represented more than 340,000 workers – chiefly those working for the Census – and eight million more people reported getting off of furlough. Likewise, new retail positions represented an increase of nearly 250,000 workers and leisure and hospitality saw growth of close to 175,000 people. Warehouse and storage jobs added 78,000 positions and education and health services reported gains of about 147,000 workers.
Unemployment rates for diverse workers also decreased: The unemployment rate for Black people fell to 13 percent while the same rate dropped to about 11 percent for Asians and 10.5 percent for Hispanic workers – all representing month-over-month decreases.
On the whole, economic news is trending stronger, with positive bumps in real estate, retail sales, real estate, manufacturing and hiring.