USA: The pace of job creations fell in August, unemployment rose | Photo credits: Lynne Sladky/AP/SIPA
WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) – U.S. job growth slowed in August and the unemployment rate rose, official statistics showed on Friday, which could ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to another three-quarter point rate hike this month.
The Labor Department reported 315,000 non-farm payrolls last month and revised the July figure down slightly to 526,000 from 528,000 originally reported.
Economists polled by Reuters, however, predicted on average a slightly larger slowdown, to 300,000 job creations in August, their estimates ranging from 75,000 to 450,000.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% while the Reuters consensus gave it at 3.5% as a month earlier. (Report Lucia Mutikani, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Marc Angrand)