Dive Brief:

• After months of healthier gains, the U.S. economy added just 142,000 non-farm jobs in August, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s monthly report, putting the U.S. unemployment rate at 6.1% from 6.2%. That’s partly because some unemployed people stopped looking for work in August and weren’t counted as unemployed.

• Retail jobs fell by 8,400, one of the biggest drops. However, this number was swayed by "employment disruptions" at what the Labor Department called "a grocery store chain in New England." That chaim is presumably Market Basket, where a management fight in the family-owned company this summer triggered an employee revolt and thousands of job cuts until it was resolved.

• This may not be the last word because August tends to be a hard-to-read month. Last year job growth in August was reported to be 169,000 and later revised to 238,000, and some economists expect a similar upward revision this year.

Dive Insight:

August’s poor employment picture was a surprise because the past 12 months have seen average gains per month of 212,000 jobs. This month’s figure is a dimming of what has been a steadily increasing sense of the U.S. economy as slowly but steadily improving. The number could easily be revised for the better, but this kind of check on signs of economic growth, plus overall sluggish wage improvements, are likely contributors to consumers’ reluctance to spend.