August hiring steady at 151,000 jobs despite lacklustre growth

Washington

COMPANIES kept adding to payrolls in August while measures of slack in the labour market were little changed, signalling steady hiring in the face of lacklustre global growth.

Payrolls climbed by 151,000 last month following a 275,000 gain in July that was larger than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed on Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 180,000. The jobless rate and labour participation rate held steady, while wage gains moderated.

The August figure is consistent with a simmering down of payrolls growth so far this year as the economy slogs through a period of weak investment and some companies have difficulty finding workers. Federal Reserve officials will have to weigh the jobs data as they decide whether to raise the benchmark interest rate for the first time i…