US ECONOMY

WASHINGTON — The American job market, a pillar of U.S. economic strength since the COVID-19 pandemic, is crumbling.

Uncertain about where things are headed under President Donald Trump's economic policies, companies grew increasingly reluctant to hire, leaving agonized jobseekers unable to find work and weighing on consumers who account for 70% of all U.S. economic activity. Their spending was the engine behind the world's biggest economy since the pandemic disruptions of 2020.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added just 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 economists expected.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% last month, also worse than expected and the hig

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