US adds 162,000 jobs in August, putting focus back on inflation

By AP

• Published Sep 5, 2026 12:10 AM KST

WASHINGTON — The U.S. job market rebounded in August as employers added a surprising 162,000 jobs. The unemployment rate stayed at a low 4.1 percent.

Hiring far exceeded the 65,000 forecasters had expected, according to a poll by FactSet. Labor Department revisions also looked good, adding 55,000 to June and July payrolls. Employers created 21,000 jobs in July; the Labor Department had originally reported that they’d cut 23,000.

Two months before the midterm elections, President Donald Trump welcomed the strong hiring report Friday. “Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple - And you haven’t seen anything yet!” Trump wrote in a social media post.

But it is inflation that has dominated conversations this year at both business and in households. Voters are increasingly frustrated by higher costs , particularly fuel prices that have hit record levels since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

And meager pay raises have made rising prices more painful for many. Average hourly wages rose 3.1 percent last month from a year earlier, the weakest year-over-year increase since May 2021.

Restaurants and bars added 59,000 jobs last month, construction companies 22,000 and manufacturers 16,000. Factory jobs are up by 58,000 since hitting a recent low in December, the Labor Department noted.

So far this year, employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — have added an average of more than 80,000 jobs a month. That is up from a dismal 9,700 last year.

But hiring remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs that were the norm in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

And the U.S. labor force — the number of people working or looking for work — jumped by 683,000 last month after falling in June and July.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG, called the report “incredible. It’s a summer heatwave.’’ She noted a broad measure of the unemployment rate – which includes people so discouraged they’ve given up looking for work and those working part time because they can’t find the full-time jobs they want – dropped to 7.7 percent, the lowest in more than a year.

Friday’s report may increase the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise its key short-term interest rate when it next meets Sept. 15-16. Solid hiring sends a signal that current borrowing costs aren’t necessarily high enough to restrain the economy and cool inflation.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said last week that inflation, at 3.7 percent according to the Fed’s preferred measure, remains too far above the central bank’s 2 percent target, and added that without further progress, they would have “work to do.”

With hiring seemingly healthy, the Fed’s focus will shift to a critical inflation report that is being released next week. On Thursday, Fed governor Christopher Waller said he is leaning toward keeping the Fed’s rate unchanged, but would support a hike if inflation comes in high.

U.S. employers are contending with a shortage of workers — the result of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and the retirement of baby boomers.

Instead of looking to hire from a diminished pool of available workers, “businesses are increasingly focused on boosting efficiency through technology and AI and increasingly seek to do more with their existing workforce,’’ EY-Parthenon economists Gregory Daco and Lydia Boussour wrote in a commentary this week.

The information industry, which includes employers in telecommunications and data processing, lost 23,000 jobs last month and is down 97,000 since the start of 2026, a sign that artificial intelligence may be taking work away from people.

Trevor Freel, a senior recruiter at the American Medical Association, said that AI appears to be replacing people in customer service and software. He asked one job candidate in customer service why he was looking for a new job. The answer: “Well, I got replaced by a robot.’’

Karp & Iancu, a fast-growing Milwaukee law firm that specializes in divorce and family law, has added three employees this month and is still hiring “in a measured way,’’ said managing partner David Iancu.

As technology, specifically AI, changes legal work, he’s looking for applicants who either have technical skills or are willing to learn them. But that’s not all.

“At least in its current form, AI is an incredible tool. It’s not much more than that,’’ said Iancu, whose firm has 55 employees, including 30 lawyers. “It does not substitute for good people or human relationships. I don’t know about you, but when I try to call customer service and I have to talk to a robot – I’m not feeling it ... Especially where people are dealing with something that’s difficult like divorce or medical (problems) – they don’t want AI as a substitute for that human relationship.

“I have no plans to replace people with AI’’