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Writer's pictureAsher Dixon

Jobs Report: A Closer Look at Labor Market Sentiment

The recent release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Employment Situation report for August found that the economy added 187k jobs in August. Additionally, unemployment edged up from 3.5% to 3.8%, with the labor force participation rate also increasing 0.2%. Which is the first time since March.

Additionally, average weekly earnings increased by 0.2%, a strong uptick for this time of the year.

“The increase in weekly earnings was strong for this time of the year, coupled with COVID savings running low, this is why half a million people rejoined the labor market this month,” said RedBalloon CEO Andrew Crapuchettes.

The Jobs report saw major downward revisions for the last two months. The revisions for June and July total 110,000 jobs less than initially reported.

“I call foul on this move by the Administration,” Crapuchettes added. “The Jobs number shouldn’t be politicized, but it is just part of the game that they are playing to try to prove that Bidenomics works.”

In addition to the numbers found in the Jobs report, the Freedom Economy Index (FEI) from RedBalloon and PublicSq. found that in small business sentiment there was a nearly 6% drop in optimism compared to July's survey.

Particularly striking is the 10% increase in the number of respondents who now believe the U.S. is heading towards a "major recession."

The FEI also reported that nearly 70% of respondents believe that ease of access to welfare is impacting the strength of the labor market.

Between the data seen in the Jobs report and the waning optimism among small businesses reported by the FEI, we continue to see a growing distrust from small businesses towards the government, and a self-reliance developing in these small businesses instead.


Read the full results of the FEI here.

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