The Latest Breaking News from Unemployment

The government reported Friday that the economy added 315,000 jobs last month, down from 526,000 in July

U.S. employers added a healthy number of jobs in August and a steady stream of people entering the workforce lifted the unemployment rate, suggesting some easing in the tight labor market and offering mixed implications for the Federal Reserve.

Applications for U.S. unemployment insurance fell for a third week to a two-month low, suggesting healthy demand for labor even as economic growth moderates.

This is an edited extract from Ross Garnaut’s address to the jobs summit on Thursday night. Read other articles in The Conversation’s series about the summit here.

The figures, released on Wednesday, show that the jobless rate went up from a rate of 4.2% in July 2022 and were down from 5.5% in August 2021

The Commonwealth Employment Service grew out of a realisation that unemployment had been a policy choice, but it fell out of government favour in the late 1980s and was privatised in 1998, leaving many former staff mourning what was once possible.

American business leaders sometimes talk about workforce productivity trends the same strained way you might expect a perfectly healthy hypochondriac to check his body temperature three times a day. (Remember “nobody wants to work anymore”? The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.5%.) The new social media meme about “quiet quitting” —…

The cost of living is increasing at its fastest rate since 1990. Inequality means more status competition, as people jostle in a high-stakes economy.

Nigeria is preparing to elect its next president in February 2023. That person will have a daunting task fixing a near comatose economy.