President Joe Biden is addressing the public on the weaker-than-expected August employment report, as the COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant and the accompanying legislation on unemployment weighs on economic recovery.
The United States added just 235,000 jobs last month, well below the 720,000 new jobs economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected to see, according to the expected report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
It is the worst monthly increase in jobs seen since January.
At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent in August, as expected, from 5.4 percent the previous month, according to the report.
This is still well above the 3.5-year low of 3.5% recorded in February last year, before the pandemic destroyed the economy.
Leisure and hospitality, the sectors that had been gaining employment in recent months, experienced the largest slowdown in hiring and remained unchanged in August, federals reported.
In contrast, professional and business services led the gains in August, securing 74,000 new jobs.
The disappointing report also comes just a week before the expiration of the federal government’s pandemic-inspired unemployment benefit program, which gives people an extra $ 300 a month and has been accused of keeping workers on the sidelines while companies are vying to hire.
Biden has previously pledged to allow this program to expire on September 6th.