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Uncertain about where things are headed under , companies grew increasingly reluctant to hire, leaving agonized jobseekers unable to find work and weighing on consumers who account for 70% of all U.S. economic activity. Their spending was the engine behind the world's biggest economy since the pandemic disruptions of 2020.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added just 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 economists expected.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% last month, also worse than expected and the highest since 2021.

"U.S. labor market deterioration intensified in August," Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Market, wrote in a commentary, noting that hiring was "slumping dangerously close to stall speed. This raises the risk of a harder landing for consumer spending and the economy in the months ahead."

Alexa Mamoulides, 27, was laid off in the spring from a job at a research publishing company and hunted for work ever since. She uses a spreadsheet to track her progress and said she's applied for 111 positions and had 14 interviews — but hasn't landed a job yet.

"There have been a lot of ups and downs," Mamoulides said. "At the beginning I wasn't too stressed, but now that September is here, I've been wondering how much longer it will take. It's validating that the numbers bear out my experience, but also discouraging."

The U.S. job market lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve's inflation fighters in 2022 and 2023.

But the hiring slump also reflects Trump's economic policies, including his sweeping and from almost every country on Earth, a and purges of the federal workforce.

Also contributing to the job market's doldrums are an aging population and the threat that artificial intelligence poses to young and entry-level workers. The unemployment rate for those ages 16 to 24 rose last month to 10.5%, the Labor Department reported Friday, the highest since April 2021.

After revisions shaved 21,000 jobs off June and July payrolls, the U.S. economy created fewer than 75,000 jobs a month so far this year, less than half the 2024 average of 168,000 and not even a quarter of the 400,000 jobs added monthly in the hiring boom of 2021-2023.

When the Labor Department put out a disappointing jobs report a month ago, an enraged Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.

"The warning bell that rang in the labor market a month ago just got louder," Olu Sonola, head of U.S economic research at Fitch Rates, wrote in a commentary. "It's hard to argue that tariff uncertainty isn't a key driver of this weakness."

Trump says his protectionist policies are meant to help American manufacturers, but factories shed 12,000 workers last month and 38,000 so far this year. Many manufacturers are hurt, not helped, by Trump's tariffs on steel, aluminum and other imported raw materials and components.

Construction companies, which rely on immigrant workers vulnerable to stepped-up ICE raids under Trump, cut 7,000 jobs in August, the third straight drop. The sweeping tax-and-spending bill Trump signed into law July 4 delivered more money for immigration officers, increasing threats of massive deportations.

The federal government, its workforce targeted by Trump and by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, cut 15,000 jobs last month. Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG, said the job market "will hit a cliff in October, when 151,000 federal workers who took buyouts will come off the payrolls."

Job gains last month were remarkably narrow: Health care and social assistance companies — a category that spans hospital to daycare centers — added nearly 47,000 jobs in August and now account for 87% of the private-sector jobs created in 2025.

Democrats were quick to pounce on the report as evidence that Trump's policies are damaging the economy and hurting ordinary Americans.

Trump's sweeping import taxes  are taking a toll on businesses that rely on foreign suppliers.

Trick or Treat Studios in Santa Cruz, California, for instance, gets 50% of its supplies from Mexico, 40% from China and the rest from Thailand, The company, which makes ghoulish masks that are replicas of such horror icons like Chucky the doll from the "Child's Play" movies as well as costumes, props, action figures and games, saw its tariff bill rise to $389,000 this year, said co-founder Christopher Zephro. He was forced to raise prices across the board by 15%.

In May, Zephro had to cut 15 employees, or 25% of his workforce. That marked the first time he's had to lay off staff since he started the company in 2009. "That's a lot money that could have been used to hire more people, bring in more product, develop more products," he said. "We had to do layoffs because of tariffs. It was one of the worst days of my life."

The weak August numbers make it all but certain that Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting, Sept. 16-17.