Labor Shock: US Adds 162K Jobs In August, 4-Sigma Beat And Above Highest Forecast
In our jobs report preview we quoted JPM’s Market Intel desk which said that today’s August payrolls number will be a case of “good news is bad news”, and sure enough futures are sliding and yields surging after moments ago the BLS reported that in August, the US added a whopping 162K jobs, up from an upward revised 21K (July is no longer negative -23K), and the second highest monthly increase of 2026 (only March was higher)…
(Lots of graphs / charts / explanations)
The unexpectedly strong print has understandably sent Sept rate hike odds spiking and has hammered risk assets, although the real decider whether we get a rate move this month will be next week’s CPI print. As a reminder, according to JPM, a print above 95K will lead to a 0.5% to -1.25% down day for the S&P.
U.S. payrolls rose 162,000 in August, much more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.1%
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/04/jobs-report-august-2026.html