Job seekers during the Hospitality House Career Fair held in San Francisco on August 13th, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The outlook appears to be getting worse for job seekers.
The US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, lower than expected, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Meanwhile, a revision of the data showed that the economy lost 13,000 jobs in June – the first month of unemployment since December 2020. That loss concludes a successive job growth streak that lasted 53 months from January 2021 to May 2025.
Outside of the pandemic, the US economy has not added these few jobs around the Great Recession for its first eight months since 2010.
“The August employment report confirmed that the labour market has departed from the edge of the cliff,” Bradley Sanders, North American economist in Capital Economics, wrote in a memo Friday.
Frozen employment market
The report, in addition to other data published this week, shows a frozen labor market for job seekers, the economist said.
In July, the number of unemployed people overturned job openings for the first time since April 2021, according to BLS data published Wednesday.
Employers have been hired at the slowest previous pace since around 2013. Meanwhile, layoffs are lowered by historical standards, suggesting employers are in a retention pattern amidst economic uncertainty and policy changes such as tariffs, economists said.
Of course, the highest unemployment rate in nearly four years is at a “completely healthy level” compared to historical standards, Sanders writes.
Employment in certain sectors such as healthcare and hospitality remains “decent,” Ulrich writes. But there is a risk that the decline in federal Medicaid and social support funds will slow further in the coming months and years, she writes.
Career coach Mandy Woodruff Santos said it was a “really challenging” environment for job seekers.
“Think of the worst game of musical chairs you’ve ever played. There were 12 chairs and we followed 100 chairs,” she said. “That’s like the feelings I’ve felt these days.”
Advice for job seekers
And, for example, Woodruff-Santos said, keeping your skills “sharp” by keeping new software used by the industry up to date.
Show off the skills and knowledge you already have in your professional network and use online platforms like LinkedIn to talk about what you are doing and what you are passionate about, she added. It’s a good way to get attention from people who may not remember you.
“You can create your own platform,” Woodruff-Santos said. “Use your voice.”
The main thing is to continue “moving forward and doing something” by perhaps getting a part-time job in the meantime or expanding your job hunt to a sector where your skills can be transferred, Ulrich said. Even volunteer opportunities can look like work experience on your resume.
Plus, don’t overlook “pivoting into place,” Woodruff Santos said. She said she is looking for opportunities to move forward internally with her current company, whether she takes more responsibility, seeking promotion or someone picks up a new skill set. She said there is a way to become an entrepreneur in your current job and how to set you up for future success.
“What people really need right now is patience,” Woodruff Santos said.
“You start to feel like you have no hope, but you can’t overwhelm the clouds,” she said.
