US unemployment rate for ages 16-24 is 10.5%

The American job market, long a pillar of U.S. economic resilience since the pandemic, is faltering under President Donald Trump’s unpredictable economic policies.

Businesses, uncertain about the outlook, have grown more hesitant to hire, leaving jobseekers struggling to find work and weighing down consumer confidence. Household spending — which makes up 70% of U.S. economic activity and has driven growth since the COVID-19 disruptions of 2020 — is beginning to feel the strain.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers, including private companies, government agencies, and nonprofits, added just 22,000 jobs in the past month, down from 79,000 in July and far short of the 80,000 economists had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, higher than forecast and the worst since 2021.

“U.S. labor market deterioration intensified in August,” said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Markets, noting that hiring has slowed to a pace “dangerously close to stall speed.” He warned that the weakness raises the risk of a sharper downturn in consumer spending and the broader economy in the months ahead.

For many, the slowdown feels personal. Alexa Mamoulides, 27, who was laid off from a research publishing job in the spring, has tracked her job search meticulously: 111 applications, 14 interviews, and still no offers. “At first I wasn’t too stressed, but now that September is here, I wonder how much longer this will take. The data validates my experience, but it’s also discouraging,” she said.

The slowdown reflects multiple factors: lingering fallout from the Fed’s 11 rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, Trump’s unpredictable tariffs on imports from nearly every country, his crackdowns on undocumented immigration, and purges of the federal workforce. Added to that are longer-term structural pressures, including an aging population and the threat of artificial intelligence displacing younger, entry-level workers.

After downward revisions cut 21,000 jobs from June and July payrolls, the economy has so far created fewer than 75,000 jobs a month this year — less than half the 2024 average of 168,000 and barely a quarter of the 400,000 added monthly during the post-pandemic hiring boom of 2021–2023.