On Friday, September 1, Northeastern University Prof. Alicia Modestino led a panel including The New School's Teresa Ghilarducci and Economic Policy Institute's Elise Gould in a Power At Work Blog/Workers by the Numbers discussion of the Bureau of Labor Statistics's August jobs, unemployment and wages report.
The panel agreed that the report was a "mixed bag" for workers. The unemployment rate rose to 3.8% from 3.5% in July. This is the first time the unemployment rate has been above 3.7% since March 2022. However, the increased rate was entirely the product of almost 600,000 workers joining the workforce during August. Labor force participation (i.e., the percentage of workers employed or actively looking for work) increased meaningfully for the first time in months.
Jobs growth remained solid, but moderate, as the economy created 187,000 jobs. BLS revised down the number of jobs created in June and July by 110,000, so the August jobs growth actually represented an increased from slower growth earlier this summer. Wages also increased moderately by 8 cents, or 0.2%, in August. That's slower growth than in the previous five months, but still enough to keep workers' wages growing faster than inflation, which is around 3.3%.
The panelists discussed a host of other data from the report, including black and teen unemployment, women's and older workers' participation in the labor force, and the danger that the gains workers have made because of tight labor markets will lost as government program expire and permanent changes are not locked in. Don't miss this discussion.
Alicia Modestino is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics, as well as the Research Director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. She previously served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Elise Gould has been a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute since 2003. She focuses her research on wages, poverty, inequality, economic mobility and healthcare. She has co-authored two books:The State of Working America, 12th Edition, and a book on health insurance coverage in retirement. She has been published in numerous academic journals and on the op-ed pages of USA Today and The Detroit News.
Teresa Ghilarducci is a labor economist and nationally-recognized expert in retirement security. She is the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz professor of economics at The New School for Social Research and the Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and The New School’s Retirement Equity Lab.
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