Commentary
The August jobs report posted on the Department of Labor website (DOL.gov) was released to the public by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.gov ) on Sept. 2, 2022 at 8:30 am ET. Its headline read “payroll employment increases by 315,000 in August; unemployment rate rises to 3.7 percent.” Charts 1a-1b and Charts 2a-2b below were generated by using FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). They replicate Charts 1 and 2 of the BLS jobs report and expand them to more years.
Chart 1a. Unemployment Rate (UNRATE series, 1948-01-01 to 2022-08-01). Monthly data. (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data [FRED], St. Louis Fed)Chart 1b. Unemployment Rate (UNRATE series, 2010-01-01 to 2022-08-01). Monthly data. (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data [FRED], St. Louis Fed)The July 2022 unemployment rate of 3.5 percent was last seen this low in Jan.-Feb. 2020, Sep. 2019, and before that, Nov.-Dec. and Jun-Aug 1969. As pointed out in the BLS jobs report, the unemployment rate was at 3.7 percent in August 2022….