August jobs report: Sharp summer slowdown
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Sep 5, 2025
The latest jobs numbers are out from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. What do they mean for job seekers, employers and investors? Here’s a quick take from Glassdoor’s Chief Economist Daniel Zhao.
As the summer starts to draw to a close, the job market is cooling off sharply too. Job gains continue to slow sharply with the 4th straight month of job gains below 100,000, though the headline may be the downward revision to June 2025 down to -13,000, the first month of job losses since December 2020.
The question now is whether May and June represent the worst of the tariff impacts as businesses responded to high uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the Liberation Day (April 2) tariff announcements or is there room for the job market to stabilize with increasing certainty now.
Key stats
- Jobs growth came in at 22,000 in August, the 4th straight month of payroll gains below 100,000. This is the slowest 4-month stretch since the onset of Covid. June jobs gains were revised from 14,000 to -13,000.
- The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July, mirroring the slowing job gains in the establishment survey.
- Average hourly earnings slowed to 3.7% year-over-year in August, down from 3.9% in July.
First job losses since December 2020
In the July jobs report, large downward revisions to May and June shocked economy watchers, subtracting 258,000 jobs from initially reported job gains and shifting our view of the trajectory of the job market.
In August’s jobs report, June data was revised downward from 14,000 to -13,000, the first month of job losses since December 2020, ending the consecutive jobs growth streak that had lasted 53 months from January 2021 through May 2025.
Holding on to health care
Not only has jobs growth slowed, but it has also narrowed with health care & social assistance remaining as the last reliable engine of jobs growth. Jobs growth excluding the health care & social assistance industry has been negative over the last 4 months in total (-142,200 in total or -35,550 as a monthly average).
While health care is traditionally resistant to recessions and demand for health care services is expected to continue to rise as the American population ages, there is an open question about whether health care will shift into a lower gear of jobs growth. If health care jobs growth slows, which could come as spending cuts start to eat into health care provider budgets, the job market risks logging more outright job losses.
Unemployment inches upward
Unemployment is inching upward, mirroring the slowing job gains. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, the highest rate since October 2021. Unemployment had held in the 4-4.2% range for much of 2024 and 2025, but the increase in unemployment now starts to raise concerns that the job market is weakening more significantly.
More insights
More industries are starting to lose jobs in August. Health care & social assistance stands out as the largest driver of jobs growth, though leisure & hospitality and retail also contributed in August.
H2 2025 is starting off poorly for many industries with outright job losses in professional & business services, construction, government, manufacturing and information on top of the slowdown in health care & social assistance.
Average hourly earnings growth also slowed, falling to 3.7% year-over-year in August from 3.9% in July. As the job market cools, wage growth has been slowly following as well.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in August, the highest level since October 2021. Similarly, the Black unemployment rate rose to 7.5%, also the highest level since October 2021.
To speak with Daniel Zhao about this report, please contact pr@glassdoor.com.
Daniel Zhao
Daniel Zhao is Chief Economist at Glassdoor. On Glassdoor's Economic Research team, he has conducted research using Glassdoor's unique data on a variety of topics affecting job seekers and employers ranging from the health of the job market to pay transparency to employee engagement & retention. His work has been cited in publications like the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review and more. Prior to joining the Economic Research team, he also worked on improving the user experience for Glassdoor’s consumer jobs product and mobile app. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard College.
