Washngton, DC, Sept. 2--Businesses added 169,000 workers to payrolls last month and the jobless rate fell to 4.9%, lowest level since August 2001.
While August's job-creation tally fell slightly short of the 190,000 gain expected by economists, the Labor Department said Friday that job growth in June and July was stronger than previously thought, bumping up the tally for those two months by a combined 44,000.
Job gains in August were broad-based, although factory employment slipped 14,000 — third consecutive monthly decline. Over the past year, the manufacturing sector has shed 110,000 workers.
The decline in the unemployment rate came as a separate survey of households also found job creation robust. Analysts had expected it to hold steady at 5.0%.
Last month's 4.9% reading was the lowest since before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The unemployment rate has fallen one-half percentage point since February.
The report showed construction payrolls grew 25,000 — a figure sure to swell in the months ahead as rebuilding after Katrina gets under way.
The service side of the economy created 156,000 jobs, spread across most sectors.
Average hourly earnings increased two cents, or 0.1%, with the year-on-year reading edging down to a 2.7% gain from July's upwardly revised 2.8%. The length of the average work week held steady at 33.7 hours.
