The unexpected surge of 162,000 jobs added to payrolls last month drove the unemployment rate for the post-9/11 generation of veterans down more than a full percentage point from 4.7% in July to 3.5% in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The unemployment rate for all veterans also came down from 4.2% in July to 3.4% in August — compared to the overall unemployment rate of 4.1%. This comes as the economy rebounded from the negative job creation numbers recorded in July, when employers shed 23,000 jobs.
The 162,000 jobs added in August blew past most analysts’ expectations of 53,000 jobs, and also gave evidence of the economy’s resilience in the face of war with Iran, rising gas and diesel prices and a new tariff war with Canada.
The surge was led by employment in food services and bars, which added 59,000 jobs in August, compared to the average monthly gain of 12,000 jobs in food services and bars over the previous 12 months, the BLS report said.
Local government schools added 42,000 jobs in August while “employment in manufacturing continued its upward trend” by adding 16,000 jobs in August — bringing the total of manufacturing jobs added this year to 58,000, the BLS report noted.
President Donald Trump quickly seized on the latest BLS numbers as an example of his administration’s success in managing the economy that he said should lead the Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates at its next Open Market Committee meeting on Sept. 15-16.
“Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago!” Trump said. “A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE - IT’S A BETTER CREDIT…Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like ‘the old days.’”
The main takeaway from the latest jobs report was that “it’s a lot easier to get a job [now] than it was a year ago,” said Heather Long, chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union. In a phone interview with Military Times, Long noted the 21,000 construction jobs added in August to cope with the demand for new data centers.
The concern for Long, however, was that wage gains were not keeping up with the rate of inflation. Wages rose 3.1% in August while inflation stood at 3.4%, she noted.
The turnaround in the jobs market has been a boon for veterans looking for work in what has been described as a “low hire, low fire” economy, said Kevin Rasch, a retired Navy Commander and the Warriors to Work Regional Director for the Wounded Warrior Project.
“We’re seeing success in placing Warriors,” he said in a telephone interview with Military Times. “The system seems to be working like it should” and it also “seems like what we’re doing is working.”
