US employers added 1.4 M jobs in August, but revised numbers for June (+4.8M jobs) and July (+1.7M jobs) reveal a slowdown since summer began.
The unemployment rate fell from a high of 16%+ to 8.4% in August, but there are still 11.5M fewer US jobs overall than there were in February 2020.
Biggest job gains in August came from USA Government hiring of 238,000 temporary census workers.
174,000 Leisure & Hospitality jobs were added, most in food service and drinking places.
Average nonfarm hourly earnings rose by $0.11 to $29.47.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said at a media conference that the August jobs report was a "good one," but that the economy is going to need low interest rates perhaps for "years."
