U.S. economy added 315,000 jobs in August; seen as good sign against inflation

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy added more than 300,000 new jobs during the month of August, the Labor Department said Friday in its monthly workforce update.

There were 315,000 hirings last month, the report said, slightly fewer than the 318,000 most analysts predicted. The figure is down from the nearly 530,000 new jobs reported for July.

The lower figure, however, is actually a positive sign for controlling inflation.

The Federal Reserve has said that a slowdown in hiring would have a noticeable impact on consumer prices. Job growth has a way of pushing inflation up because businesses typically raise prices to compensate for hiring-related costs and higher wages.

The Fed has greatly increased interest rates at its last few policy meetings to cap rising prices, which have been driven mainly by energy costs.

The department said professional and business services, healthcare and retail trade made notable job growth during the month of August.

"Employment has risen by 5.8 million over the past 12 months, as the labor market continued to recover from the job losses of the pandemic-induced recession," the department said in a statement. "This growth brings total nonfarm employment 240,000 higher than its prepandemic level in February 2020."

Unemployment increased slightly from 3.5% to 3.7%, the assessment added -- an increase of about 340,000.

According to Friday's report, job force participation in August remained just below prepandemic levels, at 62.4%. Long-term unemployment, those who haven't worked for more than 27 weeks, accounted for 19% of the total unemployment picture.

The report also indicated that more workers are physically returning to the office. The department said 6.5% of workers worked remotely in August, down from 7.1% in July.

Last month, workers at Apple announced a petition against CEO Tim Cook over his order that all San Francisco-area workers must return to the office for at least three days per week. Many of those employees -- along with millions of others nationwide -- have switched to working remotely since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday's figure was a bit higher than the private-sector jobs report by ADP and Moody's Analytics on Wednesday. That report showed a growth of 132,000 jobs in August.