Unemployment rate drops

WASHINGTON—U.S. employers added 1.4 million new jobs last month, restoring half the number of positions lost since the beginning of coronavirus-related lockdowns in March. The unemployment rate has finally dipped below the recession rates of 2008-2009, reaching 8.4 percent in August, according to the monthly U.S. Department of Labor report released Friday. Manufacturers have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels of factory ordering, and home sales are on the rise. But some industries, such as restaurants and airlines, have not yet recovered from their precipitous collapse.

Have stocks reflected this recovery? Not in the past two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed only 500 points off its record high on Wednesday but fell more than 1,000 points from Thursday to Friday morning. It regained some of those losses but had a turbulent trading day heading into the Labor Day weekend. Major tech companies such as Apple and Amazon, as well as big hitters during the pandemic like Zoom, drove the market’s ups and downs.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew on the results of the Paycheck Protection Program that Congress passed to protect workers.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.