© 2025 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The job market continues to expand at a healthy clip as U.S. heads into Labor Day

A 'Now Hiring' sign is displayed outside a check cashing shop in Los Angeles on June 2, 2023. Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%.
Mario Tama
/
Getty Images
A 'Now Hiring' sign is displayed outside a check cashing shop in Los Angeles on June 2, 2023. Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%.

The jobs market is holding steady as the country heads into the Labor Day weekend.

Employers added 187,000 jobs last month, marking a modest pickup from the previous month, the Labor Department said on Friday, with health care, hospitality, and construction among the sectors that added the most jobs.

Loading...

Trucking, however, showed a loss of jobs, due to the shutdown of the Yellow trucking company. Employment in movie production was also down as a result of the writers' and actors' strikes..

The unemployment rate rose in August to 3.8 percent, though that was mainly because more than 700,000 new people joined or re-joined the workforce.

Loading...

Meanwhile, job gains for June and July were revised down by a total of 110,000 jobs.

The labor market has shown gradual cooling in recent month, but workers are still in strong demand.

Loading...

Average wages over the last year are up 4.3%, outpacing inflation.

The data comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting later this month.

The Fed has been raising interest rates aggressively in order to cool down inflation and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said policy makers are ready to raise them more if needed.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Horsley is NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent. He reports on ups and downs in the national economy as well as fault lines between booming and busting communities.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

Related Content