Employment Figures Strong in August September 2, 2005 Curtis S. Dubay Curtis S. Dubay The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data on the August employment situation today. Highlights of today’s employment situation report: – 169,000 new payroll jobs were created in August. July’s job gains were revised up to 242,000 from an earlier estimate of 207,000. – Twenty-seven consecutive months of job gains have added over 4.1 million new jobs to payrolls. – Payroll employment has increased by over 2.2 million over the year and over 1.5 million new payroll jobs have been created so far this year. – The unemployment rate (calculated from the household survey of employment) edged down to 4.9% in August, from 5.0% in July. Last August, the unemployment rate was 5.4%. – The unemployment rate is the lowest since September 11, 2001 and remains below the averages of each of the past 3 decades. Today’s employment situation release can be seen at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf Stay informed on the tax policies impacting you. Subscribe to get insights from our trusted experts delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe Share Tweet Share Email Topics Center for Federal Tax Policy