August Employment Report: 235 Thousand Jobs, 5.2% Unemployment Rate

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 235,000 in August, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. So far this year, monthly job growth has averaged 586,000. In August, notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, private education, manufacturing, and other services. Employment in retail trade declined over the month.
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised up by 24,000, from +938,000 to +962,000, and the change for July was revised up by 110,000, from +943,000 to +1,053,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 134,000 higher than previously reported.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In August, the year-over-year change was 6.041 million jobs.  This was up significantly year-over-year.

Total payrolls increased by 235 thousand in August.  Private payrolls increased by 243 thousand.

Payrolls for June and July were revised up 134 thousand, combined.

The second graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms.

The current employment recession was by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, but currently is not as severe as the worst of the "Great Recession".

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate was unchanged at 61.7% in August, from 61.7% in July. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.

The Employment-Population ratio increased to 58.5% from 58.4% (black line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate decreased in August to 5.2% from 5.4% in July.

This was well below consensus expectations, however June and July were revised up by 134,000 combined.

I'll have more later ...