The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its employment / unemployment report for August on September 5^th, 2025.

Employment / Unemployment 

• Seasonally Adjusted U3- 4.3% Up from 4.2%
• Unadjusted U3- 4.5% Down from 4.6% in July
• Unadjusted U6- 8.2% Down from 8.3% in July
• Labor Force Participation Rate- 62.3% Up from 62.2%
• Employment- 159.410 million Up from 159.210 million
• Next data release October 3, 2025

Summary:

Total Employed increased in August, Unadjusted Unemployment was down, but Seasonally adjusted Unemployment increased.

According to the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in August (+22,000) and has shown little change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, also changed little in August. A job gain in health care was partially offset by losses in federal government and in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction…

Federal government employment continued to decline in August (-15,000) and is down by 97,000 since reaching a peak in January. (Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the establishment survey.)”

As usual, they are talking about “Seasonally Adjusted Jobs”.

Looking at the Unadjusted Establishment Survey report, we see…
Originally, the BLS reported employment of 159.227 million jobs for July, 
which they adjusted slightly to 159.210 million in September.

They are currently reporting 159.410 million jobs for August, which is an increase of 200,000 jobs based on their new numbers or 183,000 based on their original numbers. The LFPR increased from 62.2% to 62.3%.

Current Unemployment Rate Chart

Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment is up from 4.2% to 4.3%. As we can see, unemployment is 0.9% above the January and April lows of 2023 but relatively unchanged over the last year.

Current Employment Level

In February 2025 the BLS issued massive adjustments that created a sea of red in the Employment levels, erasing millions of supposed jobs in 2023 and 2024, while January’s numbers actually increased slightly.

See Current Employment  for more information.

BLS: August 2025 Employment by Sector

The BLS employment “bubble chart” based on the Establishment Survey Data gives us a good picture of the Seasonally Adjusted employment numbers.

The Bubble’s Size tells us the total Employment for that industry (i.e., larger bubbles mean more people are employed in that sector).

The bubble’s location on the chart tells us that there has been a change in Employment Levels over the most recent month… A bubble further to the right indicates larger job growth. A bubble’s vertical location on the chart shows the average industry salary.

Remember, these are Seasonally Adjusted Numbers, so they aren’t cumulative!

Looking at the above chart, we can see that eight sectors were below zero (i.e., left of the zero line -lost workers), up from 5 last month.

BLS Average Weekly Wages

BLS Employment and Average Weekly Earnings by Industry

August 2025, Seasonally Adjusted Employment

Note that due to “seasonal adjusting,” although they may claim that there was a “monthly increase” (or decrease), there isn’t always an actual increase; you can’t just subtract last month’s “employment level” from this month’s level. For instance, Total Employment was supposed to be Up by 38,000 in August. But July was 135,970,000 and August was 135,972,000 which looks like +2,000 not +38,000. And Manufacturing went from 12,727,000 to 12,722,000 which looks like –5,000 not -12,000.

Source: BLS

ADP^® National Employment Report

ADP provides an independent (non-government) estimate of private-sector employment and pay, based on data derived from ADP client payrolls. According to ADP®, In collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The numbers are released a few days before the BLS numbers and are often quite different.

Private employers added 54,000 jobs in August

• Leisure and hospitality and construction performed well despite a broader month-over-month slowdown in hiring.

Source: ADP®

ADP Private Employment by Establishment Size

August ADP Changes:

ADP Job Gainers / Losers

ADP provides a much more optimistic picture of the job situation compared to the BLS perspective, with only one sector losing jobs.

Labor Force Participation Rate

The LFPR is up from 62.2% to 62.3%.

The Labor Force Participation Rate is the percentage of the Non-Institutional Population that makes up the Labor Force.

And the Employment – Population Ratio is the percentage of the Total Population that is Employed.  We created a chart to help explain the difference. The Employment–Population Ratio is the percentage of the largest circle to the smallest circle in this diagram. While the LFPR is the relationship of the 2nd largest circle to the 3rd largest circle (entire green circle).

Less Than Full Employment

This chart compares employment levels with the (inverted) unemployment rate.

Full Employment is when everyone who wants a job has one. It is generally considered to be around 3%. After the unemployment rate almost touched the magic full employment line in April 2023, it began moving away (i.e., higher unemployment).

Note: The Unemployment rate is inverted to track the employment rate. Neither is Seasonally Adjusted. For more information see Employment vs. Unemployment.

Note: Full employment is not considered to be at zero percent because even when employers are having difficulty finding employees, some people are still unemployed due to either:

1. structural unemployment (mismatch between worker skills and job requirements, i.e., not enough training) or
2. frictional unemployment There will always be people who have quit or have lost a seasonal job and are in the process of getting a new job. Or Simply because they quit their job knowing it would be easy to find another (hopefully better) job.

Seasonally Adjusted U1 through U6 Unemployment Rates

Employment-Population Ratio

By Gender

This chart shows the Employment-Population Ratio by Gender. Men make up a much larger portion of the workforce, i.e., 67.6% of men are employed, and only 56.1% of women are employed. But…

As you can see, 20 years ago, back in 2005, over 72% of men were working and 57.4% of women were working. In 2008, the Great Recession caused a massive decline in employment for both men and women. By December of 2009, only 66.4% of men were working and 55.4% of women.

By Race

Duration of Unemployment

We may be seeing the beginning of an upturn in unemployment in the longer durations, i.e., it is starting to take longer to find a job.

Unemployed 27 Weeks or Longer

It is becoming more difficult to find a job. At this point, 25.7% of those unemployed have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, up from 24.9% last month.

Read more on UnemploymentData.com.