U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, about triple the 53,000-56,000 forecast, and unemployment held at 4.1%

The August employment report, released Friday, Sept. 4, showed employers adding 162,000 jobs — about triple the 53,000 to 56,000 economists had forecast. The unemployment rate came in at 4.1%, the same as July. Restaurants and bars accounted for 59,000 of the gain; local government education added 42,000; construction added 22,000 and manufacturing 16,000. Average hourly wages rose 3.1% from a year earlier, the weakest annual pace since May 2021. (TS: July CPI — the consumer price index, the monthly measure of what households pay for goods and services, and the most recent published reading — was 3.4% year over year (Bureau of Labor Statistics), so pay is falling behind prices.) The report lands 11 days before the Federal Reserve's Sept. 15-16 meeting, where the central bank sets its benchmark interest rate. On CME's FedWatch tool, which converts futures market prices into odds on that decision, the chance of a quarter-point rate hike rose to about 60% Friday morning, up from a roughly even split Thursday afternoon. Stocks fell. Trump posted on Truth Social that the Fed board "must get smart — BE PATRIOTS for a change," and separately: "LOWER THE RATE OR I'LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT."

Who got the 162,000 jobs, and what the revisions changed:

• Economist Mike Konczal counted 158,000 of the 162,000 August jobs going to women — 98% of the gain. Platypus Economics puts the share at 93% since January 2025.
• Since January 2025, men have netted roughly 60,000 jobs against about 747,000 for women. Women's August unemployment rate was 3.9%; men's was 4.4%.
• The revisions lift average monthly job growth over the past three months to 71,000, up from 20,000 before the Labor Department reworked the June and July figures.