Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 315,000, with notable job gains occurring in the professional services, health care, and retail trade sectors. However, the labor force participation rate — the share of working-age adults who are holding jobs or attempting to find one — increased by 0.3%, indicating that more Americans are now seeking opportunities. Unemployment had remained equivalent to or below 3.6% since March 2022.
“It’s noteworthy how we got to a higher unemployment rate. There was a significant increase in the number of individuals working and looking for work,” Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “This is fresh confirmation of a lack of sufficient supply of workers.”
Indeed, labor force participation has continued to lag over the past two years — worsening a decades-long trend of low engagement in the job market. The metric dropped from 63.4% in February 2020 to 60.2% in April 2020 alone amid government lockdowns and business closures, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of August 2022, labor force participation climbed to 62.4%.
