The August jobs report came in weaker than expected, and employment growth by different industries showed a mixed bag for the U.S. economy.
The growth was led by leisure and hospitality and health care and social assistance, with each category adding more than 40,000 jobs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If private education is included with the health-care group, as some economists do, that category would have grown by 47,000 jobs.
Elsewhere in the report, related categories of jobs saw conflicting data. Construction was a bright spot, growing by 34,000 jobs, but manufacturing shed 24,000 jobs. Professional and business services ticked up by 8,000 jobs, but information lost 7,000.
“The job growth is coming really from only three places right now: leisure and hospitality, health and education services, and government. … We’re just not seeing a lot of growth in business and professional services, and I think that is indicative of an economy that’s slowing down,” former Department of Labor chief economist Betsey Stevenson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Even some of the stronger categories showed a slowdown, at least temporarily. The health-care subsector added 31,000 jobs, or about half its average over the prior 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.