U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, nearly triple market expectations and the strongest monthly increase since March, prompting President Donald Trump to renew demands for lower interest rates even as financial markets increased bets that the Federal Reserve could instead raise rates this month.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
U.S. hiring accelerated sharply in August as employers added 162,000 jobs, nearly three times the 56,000 increase economists had expected, while President Donald Trump responded to the stronger labor-market figures by intensifying his call for the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates.
The unemployment rate remained at 4.1% for a second consecutive month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Sept. 4 employment report. August delivered the largest monthly payroll increase since March and marked a substantial rebound from the relatively weak hiring recorded earlier in the summer.
Trump celebrated the report shortly after its release while arguing that stronger economic conditions should translate into lower borrowing costs.
“Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple – And you haven’t seen anything yet!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “EMPLOYERS ADDED 162,000 JOB [sic] IN AUGUST.”
He then renewed his pressure on the central bank to move interest rates lower.
“Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago!” Trump wrote. “A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE – IT’S A BETTER CREDIT…Very simple!”
Trump argued that the United States should benefit from borrowing costs below those of other nations.
“We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like ‘the old days,’” Trump said.
The president also connected his interest-rate argument to trade policy, threatening additional action against countries with trade surpluses with the United States if rates remain elevated.
“LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT,” Trump wrote, calling such an approach “BETTER THAN TARIFFS!”
Trump told the Federal Reserve Board to “get smart” and urged its members to “BE PATRIOTS for a change.”
“High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won’t allow that to happen!” Trump wrote.
The economic data, however, initially pushed financial markets in the opposite direction from the rate cuts Trump is seeking. Investors increased expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise its benchmark interest rate when policymakers meet Sept. 15-16, with futures markets after the report pricing roughly a 59% chance of a quarter-percentage-point increase.
The stronger hiring figures give policymakers additional room to focus on inflation because they reduce concerns that tighter monetary policy could coincide with a rapidly deteriorating labor market. The Fed left its target rate unchanged at its July meeting, although three policymakers preferred a quarter-point increase.
Treasury yields climbed quickly after the employment figures were released. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield moved above 4.78%, while the 30-year yield approached 5.25%. The two-year yield, which is particularly sensitive to expectations for Federal Reserve policy, moved toward 4.39%.
Stocks also came under pressure as investors recalculated the likelihood of another rate increase. Major indexes initially showed mixed movement following the report before broader selling pushed stocks lower as the morning progressed. Reuters reported that expectations for a September rate increase rose from approximately 52% before the report to about 59% afterward.
The market reaction illustrated the tension between strong economic data and interest-rate expectations: evidence of a healthier labor market can reassure investors about economic growth while simultaneously increasing the possibility that the Fed will maintain restrictive monetary policy or raise rates further to address inflation.
“One of the head-scratching terms that come out of Wall Street is that ‘good news is bad news,’ and that’s the case this morning, where a great Jobs report … had an instant reaction of stocks and bonds selling off,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Management, said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.
“The big issue for markets is whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month and although inflation has been an issue, the job market has been more variable, and for some members of the [Federal Open Market Committee], it has been something they had kept an eye on and has been one reason they weren’t raising rates more quickly to fight inflation,” Zaccarelli added.
The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to begin its two-day meeting Sept. 15 and announce its monetary-policy decision Sept. 16. Policymakers will also receive another round of inflation data before making that decision.
August’s jobs report substantially changed the picture presented by the initial figures for early summer.
July payrolls, previously reported as a loss of 23,000 jobs, were revised upward by 44,000 to show a gain of 21,000. June employment was increased by another 11,000, from the initially reported 20,000 gain to 31,000.
Together, those revisions added 55,000 jobs to previously reported employment for June and July.
The establishment survey has now recorded approximately 643,000 additional payroll jobs since January, according to figures derived from the monthly employment data.
“The August jobs report shocked just about everybody,” Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.
“In a normal world, that is good news. Employers hired. The labor market did not roll over.”
Hiring in August was led by restaurants and bars, which added 59,000 positions. That was nearly five times the industry’s average monthly increase of 12,000 during the preceding 12 months.
Local government education accounted for another 42,000 jobs, largely reversing a decline during July. Despite that August increase, BLS said employment in local government education has shown little net movement since January 2025.
Goods-producing industries also contributed to the stronger report.
Construction employment increased by 22,000 in August, while manufacturing added 16,000 positions. Manufacturing payrolls have increased by 58,000 since reaching a recent low in December 2025, with machinery and fabricated-metal-product manufacturing each adding approximately 6,000 jobs during August.
Healthcare added 13,000 jobs. Although employment continued to grow, BLS said that was “a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months” of 32,000. Home healthcare services added 11,000 positions and hospitals added 8,000, with changes elsewhere producing the overall 13,000 increase.
The information sector moved in the opposite direction, losing 23,000 jobs during August after averaging losses of approximately 8,000 per month during the preceding year.
The reductions included 8,000 jobs among computing-infrastructure providers, data-processing firms, web-hosting companies and related services; 7,000 in publishing; and 5,000 among broadcasting and content providers. The employment report did not attribute those losses specifically to artificial intelligence, although they occurred amid continuing restructuring in technology and information-related industries.
Several other major sectors recorded relatively little overall change, including mining and logging, wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, professional and business services, social assistance and other services.
Wage growth remained moderate.
Average hourly earnings for private-sector employees increased 10 cents, or 0.3%, in August to $37.75. Earnings were 3.1% higher than a year earlier, while annual consumer inflation was running at 3.4% based on the latest available inflation figures.
The average private-sector workweek increased by one-tenth of an hour to 34.4 hours. Manufacturing employees averaged 40.5 hours, while manufacturing overtime remained unchanged at 3.1 hours.
Separate household-survey figures showed a significant increase in the number of people reporting full-time employment.
Seasonally adjusted full-time employment rose from approximately 133.55 million in July to 134.29 million in August, an increase of roughly 735,000. Part-time employment declined from about 28.76 million to 28.54 million, a decrease of approximately 223,000.
The number of Americans holding multiple jobs also increased. Seasonally adjusted multiple jobholders rose from approximately 8.69 million in July to 8.81 million in August, an increase of about 112,000. They represented 5.4% of employed Americans.
The broader household survey showed total employment increasing by 569,000 in August.
Labor-force participation also improved after falling to an unusually low level in July. The participation rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point, from 61.4% to 61.6%, although it remained 0.5 percentage point below its January level.
The decline in participation over the longer term has coincided with several structural changes in the labor force, including the retirement of aging baby boomers and changes in immigration and the supply of available workers.
The number of people working part time for economic reasons — workers who would prefer full-time jobs but cannot obtain them or have had their hours reduced — declined by 414,000 to approximately 4.4 million. The number of people outside the labor force who said they wanted a job remained little changed at 5.7 million.
Long-term unemployment also changed little. Approximately 1.9 million people had been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, accounting for 27% of all unemployed Americans.
Taken together, the August figures present a much stronger labor-market picture than the initial summer reports suggested. Payroll growth accelerated to 162,000, earlier estimates for June and July were revised higher, unemployment held at 4.1%, participation increased and full-time employment rose substantially.
Those same figures have intensified the disagreement over what the Federal Reserve should do next.
Trump is demanding substantially lower rates and argues that the country’s economic strength and creditworthiness justify cheaper borrowing. Financial markets, meanwhile, interpreted the unexpectedly strong employment report as increasing — rather than decreasing — the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September.
That leaves the upcoming inflation reports as a major remaining factor before policymakers announce their next interest-rate decision Sept. 16.
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