Jobs Gains Roar Back in August

August 2026 Employment Situation – Key Takeaways

• The economy added 162,000 jobs in August, well above expectations.

• Manufacturing added 16,000 jobs, construction added 22,000, and leisure and hospitality had a particularly strong month, adding 62,000 jobs.

• For staffing, the most encouraging number may be temporary help. August marks the eighth consecutive month of growth.

• According to the JOLTS report, hiring fell sharply in July.

  
  

The August report gives us a little more confidence that the July numbers may have been an anomaly. Adding 162,000 jobs is a meaningful improvement and the unemployment rate remaining at 4.1% tells us the labor market isn't deteriorating rapidly. Healthcare continues to add jobs, manufacturing is showing some momentum, and construction remains healthy, but information and financial activities both lost jobs. In other words, this is a labor market that improved in August.

For the staffing industry, I think the temporary-help number is the one worth watching. Temporary help employment increased another 6,800 in August, making it the eighth consecutive month of increases. That's important because staffing is often one of the first places employers turn when they aren't quite ready to make a permanent commitment. If companies are becoming more comfortable adding temporary workers, that could be an early indication that confidence is returning. We aren't declaring victory yet, but after a couple of very difficult years for staffing, seeing temporary help consistently move higher is a trend worth paying attention to.

July 2026 JOLTS

• Job openings increased slightly to 7.27 million in July, but hiring fell sharply to 5.05 million. That's an interesting combination: employers still have plenty of positions they want to fill, but they aren't converting those openings into hires at the same pace. In fact, hires fell by roughly 278,000 from June. To me, that continues to point toward a more cautious employer, a market where companies need people but are taking longer to pull the trigger.

For a deeper dive….

•            A more encompassing measure of unemployment (U6) that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic fell .2% to 7.7%.

•            Prime age labor force participation rate (ages 25-54) held at 83.4%.

•            The overall labor force participation increased by .2% to 61.6%.  This is 1.6% below the level of February 2020.

In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $37.75. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.1percent. In August, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 11 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $32.53.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours in August. In manufacturing, the average workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours, and overtime was unchanged at 3.1 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.8 hours.

•            APD reported that 38,000 jobs were added in July.