Accessibility links

Breaking News

US Jobless Rate Drops, Employers Add 169,000 Jobs


The U.S. says its labor market advanced again in August, with its unemployment rate hitting the lowest point since late 2008 and employers adding another 169,000 jobs.

The government said Friday that the jobless rate last month edged down to 7.3 percent.

The number of new jobs in August showed the U.S. economy, the world's largest, is advancing, but only modestly and not as fast as in early 2013.

In its newest report, the government also revised its job count for June and July downward, saying that a combined 74,000 fewer jobs were added in the two months than first estimated.

The relatively weak job growth could complicate economic decisions for the country's central bank, the Federal Reserve.

Policy makers at the Fed have been weighing whether to cut the $85-billion-a-month purchase of securities they have been making to pump more money into the U.S. economy to boost its recovery.

The central bank has said that it might begin to pare back the purchases this year and end them by mid-2014. The policy makers are set to meet in two weeks and could order a cutback then, or wait and consider more economic reports before acting.
XS
SM
MD
LG