Employers across the U.S. added 22,000 jobs in August, falling short of economists' muted expectations and signaling the labor market is facing sharp headwinds from mounting economic uncertainty amid the Trump administration's wide-ranging tariffs.

The numbers

Economists had forecast payroll gains of 80,000 last month, according to a poll by FactSet.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in August, up from 4.2% in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

The latest data points to an ongoing slowdown in the labor market, with employers hiring an average of 29,000 each month from June through August, versus 168,000 workers each month in 2024. Revised data shows that employers shed 13,000 jobs in June rather than adding the 14,000 that had been reported a month earlier, marking the first

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