Payroll growth slumps in August; unemployment rate down to 6.1%

CNBC ^ | 08/05/2014 | Jeff Cox

[SeekAndFind]

Job growth cooled in August, with nonfarm payrolls adding just 142,000 even as the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, according to the Labor Department. The fall in the headline rate came as labor-force participation fell, declining to 62.8 percent, or 64,000 workers, tying the 2014 bottom and remaining at the lowest level since 1978.

Economists expected payroll growth of 225,000 in August following July's upwardly revised 212,000. The unemployment rate was forecast to drop to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent.

August's number are a notoriously volatile set, with 2013's initially reported 169,000 ultimately revised up to 238,000. In 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics initially said net job creation was zero, only to push that figure up to 104,000 by the time all was said and done.

[Scotswife]

If everyone decided to sit home this unemployment rate would drop to zero!

[Theodore R.]

Remember, the uncounted are those whose unemployment comp has expired.