WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Non-farm payroll employment in the United States increased last month by 169,000, the Labor Department reported Friday.
That gain offset losses to leave overall U.S. unemployment in August steady at 4.9 percent.
New jobs last month were created in the building trades, healthcare industries, hotel and motel businesses and food services. The number of manufacturing jobs fell in August.
The report was a blend of discouragement and encouragement. Economists had expected a 5 percent unemployment rate, but they also had expected new job creation to climb more, to about 190,000.
The department said the nation's unemployment rate has "trended down by half a percentage point since February. The number of unemployed persons, 7.4 million, was down from 8 million in February."
