U.S. added 187,000 jobs in August; Biden hails strong job-creating period

Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The United States added 187,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%, the Labor Department reported Friday. President Biden hailed the job growth during his administration during live remarks from the White House Friday.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the August additions to non-farm payrolls were lower than the average monthly gain of 271,000 over the past year while the jobless rate hit 3.8%.

President Joe Biden addressed the jobs report in live stream remarks from the White House Friday.

He said with August's job report, 13.5 million jobs have been added since he took office.

"America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history, in the history of our country," Biden said. " And it wasn't that long ago when America was losing jobs. In fact, my predecessor was one of only two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered."

Biden said all of the jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic have been recovered while a million over and above that number have also been created.

Biden said the unemployment rate was 6.3% when took office. For 19 months in a row since Biden has been in office America's jobless rate has been below 4%.

Biden said for women, the unemployment rate is the lowest in 70 years.

He said union jobs, which he is trying to help increase, make a difference for workers.

"Unions raise workers' income, increase home ownership, increase retirement savings ... and reduce inequality, all of which strengthen America's economy," Biden said, citing a Treasury Department report.

Biden said Wall Street didn't build America, the middle class built America and unions built the middle class.

"Some have said that to get inflation under control we had to have higher unemployment," Biden said. "But I've never believed that the problem is workin' people making too much money."

He said today America has the strongest economy in the world, the lowest inflation among advanced economies and 13.5 million new jobs.

In August healthcare added 71,000 jobs, leisure and hospitality over 40,000, nursing and residential care facilities 17,000 and hospitals added 15,000 jobs. Construction added 22,000 jobs.

On the minus side, transportation and warehousing lost 34,000 jobs in August. Couriers and messengers lost 9,000 jobs.

The Labor Department said due to strike activity motion picture and sound recording jobs dropped by 17,000.

The jump in unemployment came as 514,000 Americans lost their jobs in August, bringing the total of unemployed people to 6.4 million. It could be a sign that the job market is weakening amid high interest rates imposed to fight inflation.

Thursday's data came a day after private payroll processor ADP's monthly report showed the private sector added 177,000 jobs in August. That was sharply lower than ADP's figure of 324,000 jobs added in July, suggesting hiring may be starting to plateau.

A year ago at this time, 6 million people were jobless and the unemployment rate was 3.7%.