Hiring stalls in U.S. with companies reluctant to expand

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WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as the labour market continued to cool due to uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

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Hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July, the Labor Department said Friday, and came in below the roughly 80,000 economists had expected for August. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021.

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When the Labor Department put out a disappointing jobs report a month ago, an enraged Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.

Talking to reporters Thursday night at a dinner with wealthy tech executives, Trump had seemed to shrug off whatever hiring numbers would come out Friday. “The real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now,” the president said.

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Factories shed 12,000 jobs in August, the fourth straight month that manufacturers have cut payrolls. Construction companies cut 7,000 jobs, and the federal government 15,000.

Health-care and social assistance companies — a category that spans hospital to daycare centres — added nearly 47,000 jobs last month and now account for 87% of the private-sector jobs created in 2025.

Labor Department revisions lopped 21,000 jobs off June and July payrolls and revealed that employers had actually cut 13,000 jobs in June, the first monthly job losses since December 2020 when the job market was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far this year the economy is generating fewer than 75,000 new jobs a month, less than half the 168,000 jobs per month added last year and not even a quarter of the 400,000 jobs added monthly in the hiring boom of 2021-2023.

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The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve’s inflation fighters in 2022 and 2023 and partly because Trump’s policies, including his sweeping tariffs on imports from almost every country on earth, have created uncertainty that leaves managers reluctant to make hiring decisions.

“The warning bell that rang in the labour market a month ago just got louder,’ Olu Sonola, head of U.S economic research at Fitch Rates, wrote in a commentary. “It’s hard to argue that tariff uncertainty isn’t a key driver of this weakness.”

Democrats were quick to pounce on the report as evidence that Trump’s policies were damaging the economy and hurting Americans.

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“Americans cannot afford any more of Trump’s disastrous economy. Hiring is frozen, jobless claims are rising, and the unemployment rate is now higher than it has been in years,” said Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. “The president is squeezing every wallet as he chases an illegal tariff agenda that is hiking costs, spooking investment, and stunting domestic manufacturing.”

Workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from July and 3.7% from August 2024, exactly what forecasters expected. The year-over-year figure is nearing the 3.5% that many economists see as consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.

Josh Hirt, senior economist at the financial services firm Vanguard, said that the tumbling payroll numbers reflect a reduced supply of workers — the consequence of an aging U.S. population and a reduction in immigration. “We should get more comfortable seeing numbers below 75,000 and below 50,000” new jobs a month, he said. “The likelihood of seeing negative (jobs) numbers is higher,” he said.

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The weak numbers make it all but certain that Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting, Sept. 16-17. Under chair Jerome Powell, the Fed has been reluctant to cut rates until it sees what impact Trump’s import taxes have on inflation.

Vanguard’s Hirt expects the Fed to reduce its benchmark rate _ now a range of 4.25% to 4.5% — by a full percentage point over the next year and says it might cut rates at each of its next three meetings.

Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to lower rates, and has sought to fire one Fed governor, Lisa Cook, over allegations of mortgage fraud in what Cook claims is a pretext to gain control over the central bank.

After seeing the weak July jobs numbers, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, baselessly claiming the hiring report had been rigged to hurt him politically.

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He has nominated a partisan idealogue, E.J. Antoni, to replace her. But for now, pending Antoni’s confirmation by the Senate, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, Bill Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official.

Josh Hirt, senior economist at the financial services firm Vanguard, said that the tumbling payroll numbers reflect a reduced supply of workers — the consequence of an aging U.S. population and a reduction in foreign workers as Trump cracks down on illegal immigration. “We should get more comfortable seeing numbers below 75,000 and below 50,000” new jobs a month, he said. “The likelihood of seeing negative (jobs) numbers is higher.” he said.

Hirt expects the Fed to reduce its benchmark rate — now a range of 4.25% to 4.5% — by a full percentage point over the next year and says it might cut rates at each of its next three meetings.

— AP Writer Josh Boak contributed to this story.

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