The latest strong employment figures keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates by either 0.5 or 0.75 percentage point at its meeting later this month to combat high inflation.
Employers added 315,000 jobs in August and have added a monthly average of 381,000 positions over the past six months, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate increased—by 0.2 percentage point to 3.7%—because more Americans looked for jobs in August than in July.
