Weak gain in U.S. hiring

America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a surprisingly weak gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping and eating out.

The job gains the government reported Friday fell far short of the big gains in June and July of roughly 1 million a month. Those increases followed widespread vaccinations that allowed the economy to fully reopen from pandemic restrictions.

Still, the number of job openings remains at record levels, and hiring is expected to stay solid in the coming months. And even though hiring was relatively tepid in August, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% from 5.4% in July.

Friday’s report provided numerous signs that the delta variant had a depressive effect on job growth last month. The sectors of the economy where hiring was weakest were mainly those that require face-to-face contact with the public.

Hiring in a category that includes restaurants, bars and hotels, for example, sank to zero after those sectors had added roughly 400,000 jobs in both June and July.

Health care and government employers also cut jobs in August. Construction companies, which have struggled to find workers, lost 3,000 jobs despite strong demand for new homes.

Government employers shed 8,000 jobs, mostly because of a sharp declines in local education hiring after strong gains in June and July. That decline reflected, at least in part, volatile hiring patterns around education as schools prepared to reopen amid the pandemic.

One area of solid hiring strength last month was among manufacturers and shipping and warehouse companies.

Last month’s slowdown in hiring suggests that even though many businesses want to fill jobs, they’re unable to find all the workers they need. That trend is is pushing up wages, which rose a robust 4.3% in August compared with a year earlier.