The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected last month and unemployment ticked up to 4.2%. NPR’s Scott Simon talks to Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S. Labor Department reports that the economy added fewer new jobs last month than expected, and unemployment rose a bit. It’s now at 4.2%. We’re joined now by Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. She was, of course, a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Thanks so much for being with us.
BETSEY STEVENSON: Oh, it’s great talking with you this morning.
SIMON: Twenty-nine thousand new jobs. What do you see in these latest numbers?
STEVENSON: Well, what I see is a continuation of a low-fire, low-hire labor market. And that is a labor market where if you have a job, you’re doing OK. You can hang on to it, but it’s hard to get a new job. And that hurts not only the people who need to enter the labor market or have lost their job, but it actually also hurts the people who are employed because most wage gains – big wage gains – come from changing jobs. So that was the other thing we saw in this report, is that, on average, people’s wages are not keeping up with inflation.
SIMON: In recent months, a majority of the new jobs have gone to women, though in this report, it was more equal than previous months. What’s going on?
STEVENSON: Well, you and I have talked about this before. So I looked at this longer trend because you’re right. This month, it was more even. Fourteen thousand of the 29,000 jobs went to women. But if we actually look since July, a hundred percent of the jobs have gone to women, and we now see that women hold 50.1% of the jobs. And this is almost completely explained by the fact that almost all the hiring in our labor market is being driven by healthcare. That is a area where we still need people, and women are the majority of the workers in that industry, and it is growing. That is the engine of job growth, which is very confusing for some people because AI is the engine of GDP growth, but it has not been an engine for job growth.
SIMON: Unemployment among Black workers rose sharply – full percentage point. That is now more than double the rate for white workers. What do you see in that?
STEVENSON: Well, what I see is a series of patterns that reflect a labor market that we’re not in a recession, but I wouldn’t call this a strong labor market. And what happens in a weak labor market is all sorts of workers who are used to being able to churn and change jobs frequently find themselves getting left out. And when we break down the unemployment rate to groups like Black workers, we do see a lot more volatility. So when you see a big jump in a month – I always want to have a little bit of caution. That’s why you’re hearing some caution in my voice. But I think it’s symbolic of a labor market that matches the K-shaped economy.
People who are doing well are still doing well. And any kind of worker who’s struggling to get their foot in the door, keep their foot in the door, get a promotion to the next thing – those are the people who are really struggling right now. And I think that’s why we’re seeing this real increasing anger over the labor market, because there’s no openings and breaks for people to get. I mean, obviously, there’s still job openings, but what we’ve seen is a decline in the availability of opportunities, which has led fewer people to quit jobs. If you’re afraid to quit your job, Scott, because you think you’ll never find another one, then you can’t create another opening for someone else.
SIMON: And that has the effect of depressing wages, which doesn’t keep up with inflation.
STEVENSON: Exactly. And it’s just a vicious cycle that leaves everybody sort of worse off. We’re all much better off in the labor market if we can all chase our dreams, find those new opportunities. The opportunity we’re leaving for something else is someone else’s opportunity to get ahead.
SIMON: What other data are you looking for between now and Election Day?
STEVENSON: Well, I’m looking at consumer confidence because there’s always this, you know, disconnect. People say that they are really unhappy about the economy, but we did see some job growth in leisure and hospitality and people going out to restaurants. So the question is, are they showing behavior that’s indicative of being frightened? Because that will start to slow the economy down. But I do think it’s time for every policymaker to have jobs and affordability front of mind, because that’s certainly the front of mind of most Americans.
SIMON: Betsey Stevenson, economist and professor at the University of Michigan. Thank you so much for being with us again.
STEVENSON: I loved talking with you.
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
This story originally appeared on NPR
