Below, EPI economists offer their initial insights on the jobs report released this morning, which showed 315,000 jobs added in August.

From EPI senior economist, Elise Gould (@eliselgould):

Read the full Twitter thread here. 

In August, most jobs were added in education and health services and professional and business services. While govt jobs increased by 7,000 in August, they remain 645,000 below pre-pandemic levels, a concerning phenomenon for those workers and the vital services they provide. pic.twitter.com/wMoqhfZhNg

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 2, 2022

With the August increase, private sector employment is now 0.7% above pre-pandemic levels while state and local jobs remain stubbornly 3.2% below its February 2020 level with little improvement in recent months. pic.twitter.com/VS9ICLnRre

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 2, 2022

The latest quarterly change (annualized) in average hourly earnings for all private-sector and production-nonsupervisory workers shows no signs of acceleration and demonstrates, once again, that wages in the labor market are pulling down (not pushing up) inflation. pic.twitter.com/dc1OcLulbi

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 2, 2022

Troubling trend in Black unemployment, which rose 0.6 pps over the last two months to 6.4%. It’s a more volatile series, but labor force participation and EPOPs for Black workers have declined in each of the last three months as well. pic.twitter.com/YpVKSfijag

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 2, 2022

The rise in Black unemployment and fall in participation and employment in August was experienced by both Black men and Black women.

The rise in Hispanic unemployment was accompanied by an increase in participation and employment for both Hispanic men and Hispanic women. pic.twitter.com/cqGR6WjUVm

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 2, 2022

From EPI president, Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz):

Read the full Twitter thread here. 

We added 315,000 jobs in August. This is down substantially from the blistering average pace of 561,000 per month for the 12 months ending in February of this year, but remains solid. 2/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

Wage growth dropped in August and has clearly not accelerated in 2022. 4/ pic.twitter.com/4QTO3gVadZ

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

Though today’s release underscores we’re almost surely not in a recession now, the fed may have already overshot and secured a recession in coming months. Regardless, they should slow the pace of rate increases substantially and be ready to go into neutral or even cut rates. 6/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

The private sector has gained back all the jobs it lost in the covid recession, and more. State and local governments have gained back less than 60%. I’m a broken record on this, but we have to push state and local govts to use their ARPA funds to raise pay & hire workers. 8/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

The overall numbers mask big disparities for different groups. Due to the impact of structural racism on the labor market, people of color have much higher unemp rates than white workers. For example, the unemp rate is currently 6.4% for Black workers, 3.2% for white workers. 10/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

But it’s worth noting that all groups are seeing far faster recoveries *than they did following the Great Recession.* From the start of the Great Recession, it took more than 10 years for Black unemployment to get down to 6.4%, but this time around it took just over 2 years. 12/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022

Of course, a recession caused by the fed raising rates too aggressively would undo a great deal of the enormous gains that have occurred in the current recovery. 14/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) September 2, 2022