US employers add 162K jobs in August — surprisingly strong pace after tepid summer

Employers hired at a surprisingly strong pace in August, raising bets that the Federal Reserve will keep its focus on inflation and setting up a coin toss whether the central bank will hike interest rates this month.

US employers added 162,000 jobs in August, above estimates of just 53,000 jobs and a revised gain of 21,000 the previous month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

The unemployment rate remained flat at 4.1%, which some economists have attributed to a shrinking labor force – the combination of an aging population and the Trump administration’s strict deportation agenda.

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