The U.S. labor-market rebound extended for a fourth month in August, offering hope that the economy can continue to recover despite a persistent pandemic and Washington’s standoff over further government aid to jobless Americans and small businesses. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million, including the hiring of 238,000 temporary Census workers, according to a Labor Department report Friday. The unemployment rate fell by more than expected, by almost 2 percentage points, to 8.4%.
The dollar and yields on 10-year Treasuries climbed after the report, while the S&P 500 rose at the open before declining amid a rout in technology stocks. The median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1.35 million gain in nonfarm payrolls and an unemployment rate of 9.8%. It was 3.5% in February, matching a half-century low.
The drop in the unemployment rate to single digits, with two months before the November election, could give a boost to President Donald Trump, who has often polled better than Democratic opponent Joe Biden on economic issues and is counting on such sentiment to help him win a second term