August job growth fell short of expectations, and even health care, the steadiest source of new jobs, lost steam.

U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as unemployment rose to 4.3 percent, the Labor Department said Friday — well below economists’ forecast of 80,000 and July’s gain of 79,000.

Health care has fueled hiring in recent years, but the latest report suggests that momentum may be slowing. The Labor Department said the industry added 31,000 jobs last month, well below its 42,000 monthly average over the past year. Social assistance, which includes child care services, added 16,200 jobs.

Which industries added jobs?

Major industries that added jobs in August 2025 (preliminary data):

• Health care and social assistance: +46,800
• Leisure & hospitality: +28,000
• Other services: +12,000
• Retail trade: +10,500
• Transportation and warehousing: +3,600

Together, health care and social assistance still led all sectors in August, adding 46,800 jobs, but that’s the smallest monthly increase since January 2022, Bloomberg noted. The slowdown is striking, since those roles have accounted for nearly 90 percent of all the private sector jobs added in 2025.

Earlier this week, a separate government report showed that job openings in health care and social assistance plunged by 181,000 in July, the biggest decline of any sector.

An aging population will keep those jobs in high demand over the long run, but the latest data suggests even the labor market’s most resilient areas are slowing.

Which industries cut jobs?

Major industries that shed jobs in August 2025 (preliminary data):

• Professional and business services: -17,000
• Government: -16,000
• Manufacturing: -12,000
• Wholesale trade: -11,700
• Construction: -7,000

Outside of health care, major sectors shed jobs in August. Professional and business service companies cut 17,000 jobs, and construction companies lost 7,000.

Manufacturing jobs fell by 12,000 and are now down by 42,000 since April, a month when President Trump announced sweeping tariffs. The federal government shed an additional 15,000 jobs last month, now down 97,000 since the start of the year.

Revisions from the Labor Department on Friday pointed to further cooling, with 21,000 jobs chopped from June and July payrolls. June now shows a loss of 13,000 jobs, the first monthly losses since December 2020.

Overall, the U.S. economy has created about 75,000 jobs a month so far this year, less than half the 2024 average of 186,000. The three-month average is now just 29,000 jobs per month.

“On a percentage basis have not seen job growth this slow outside of recessionary periods in more than sixty years,” Harvard University economist Jason Furman wrote on the social media platform X.

Will the Federal Reserve cut interest rates?

The weak jobs report makes it likely the Federal Reserve will slash its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting. So far, chair Jerome Powell has been reluctant to do so until the inflationary effects of Trump’s tariff policy are clearer.

Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to lower rates and blasted him on social media after Friday’s jobs report, writing, “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should have lowered rates long ago. As usual, he’s ‘Too Late!'”

Last month, the president fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after an underwhelming jobs report, claiming without evidence that the numbers had been rigged to make him look bad.

Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to replace McEntarfer, but he still needs to be confirmed by the Senate before taking over. For now, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, Bill Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Video: WEAK August Jobs Report Flashes MAJOR WARNING SIGN For Economy – 12:30 Report

(NEXSTAR) – Assuming you beat the infinitesimal odds and win the Powerball jackpot Saturday night, there are several things you must do to avoid costly mistakes, experts say.

On Friday, the jackpot grew to $1.8 billion, making it the second-largest U.S. lottery jackpot in history, trailing only a prize claimed in California in 2022 that surpassed $2 billion.

The pre-tax numbers are staggering, but a winner’s game plan after matching the numbers may determine how rich that person ultimately remains.

“The biggest fear that pretty much all sudden wealth recipients have, and especially lottery winners, is that they’re going to screw it up,” Robert Pagliarini, author of “The Sudden Wealth Solution,” told Nexstar.

Pagliarini has been advising clients, including lottery winners, for over 20 years on how to handle large influxes of money. He says that the goal is always to turn that lump sum into lasting wealth, but added that for lottery winners there are some must-dos.

The crucial first step

The winning lottery ticket is just a slip of paper and can be stolen, lost or even destroyed in a washing machine.

Until it is signed, the ticket is a bearer instrument, or a financial document that is payable to the person who physically possesses it.

“That means that they really need to document that they are the owner of the ticket,” Pagliarini said. “So I would take a selfie with the ticket, I would take a video of me and the ticket, I would sign the ticket and I would keep that ticket in a very, very safe place.”

Don’t go it alone

If possible, experts advise, keep the lottery win a secret while building a team of experts.

Pagliarini warns that strangers, friends and even family members may all come knocking once word circulates. To safeguard the winnings, he recommends hiring an attorney, tax advisor and financial advisor as soon as possible.

There’s going to be helicopters flying overhead when you go and collect the winnings like this. This stuff happens because the world gets excited. And now everyone knows that you’ve got a billion dollars that’s not good. In no circumstances is that a good thing.

He recommends staying out of the spotlight and telling as few people as possible, as well as crafting a plan to prepare for speaking to the media.

Annuity or lump sum?

A monumental decision that Mega Millions jackpot winners face is how to receive their winnings – in a big lump sum or spread out over years in annuity payments.

If someone beats the 1-in-302,575,350 odds and wins the current Mega Millions jackpot on Friday, they will ultimately have to choose between taking the pot in 30 payments over 29 years, or the reduced lump cash sum of roughly $602 million.

Nicholas Bunio, a Pennsylvania certified financial planner, said even with his expertise, he would take an annuity because it would so dramatically reduce his risk of making poor investment decisions.

“It allows you to make a mistake here and there,” Bunio said. “People don’t understand there is a potential for loss. They only focus on the potential for gain.”

The gulf between the cash and annuity options has become larger because inflation has prompted a rise in interest rates, which in turn results in potentially larger investment gains. With annuities, the jackpot cash is essentially invested and then paid out to winners over three decades.

“You’ve got to see what is the best option for you,” Steven Evensen, CFP, a financial advisor with Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, told Nexstar.

While the lump sum is more popular and would grant immediate access to the cash, it also means more taxes.

“You’d be taxed up to 37 percent federally, and then even more so depending on your state tax,” Evensen cautioned. “So I would speak to an accountant about that to make sure you aren’t kind of overspending in your head before you actually receive the money and receive your tax bill at the end of the day.”

Regardless of which payout plan you choose, Evensen recommends investing some of the money. What you invest in depends on your goals, but “low cost mutual funds, index funds are a great place to start.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Trump’s executive order to formally change the Department of Defense to the Department of War was met on Friday with enthusiasm from some on the right, but largely elicited skepticism on the left and concerns about the steep cost from former officials. 

Trump framed the rebrand as a signal of American strength that will send a message of “victory” to America’s allies and adversaries alike.

Now Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that the name change represented a new focus on “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” at the Pentagon.

“Violent effect, not politically correct,” he said during the press conference alongside Trump. “We’re gonna raise up warriors. Not just defenders.”

Hegseth shared a video on social media showing workers taking down “Secretary of Defense” signage and in its place putting up his new title as secretary of war. His social media profiles also quickly shifted to describe him as “Secretary of War.”

But in the greater Capitol area, some weren’t nearly as enthused, with some complaining the change will cost the department millions of dollars for an effort deemed largely symbolic.

“It’s very, very costly,” said retired Col. Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, estimating that the effort will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. 

“Whatever is displayed — from stationary to actual monuments and such — they’ll have to be recarved, reinscribed, you’re talking about millions of dollars being spent on a name change,” he told The Hill.

House Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) had a more blunt assessment.

“It’s hard to adequately plumb the depths of the stupidity of everything that goes into this. Changing the word ‘defense’ to ‘war,’ what signal does it send? Absolutely freaking nothing. It makes literally no difference,” Smith said on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW.

Smith pointed to the meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in China earlier this week, a gathering that has worried the Western world.   

“What world are we living in that this is our president, this is what he thinks is important, while Xi and Putin and Kim Jong Un . . .are meeting. This is the answer to that?”

Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) poked fun at Trump over the change in relation to the president’s recent campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

“Trump is begging for the Nobel Peace Prize. This should cinch it for him right?” he wrote on X.

On the other side of the aisle, including Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) told NewsNation’s Blake Burman that the mission will remain the same despite the rebrand.

“The world is unstable. We have villains out there — Putin and North Korea and Iran being probably the top three,” Zinke said. “There’s a projection of power the United States has to have.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, challenged Trump to implement a bigger increase in the Pentagon’s budget to deter threats from the likes of China, Russia and other adversaries.

“If we call it the Department of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars. Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than [former Presidents] Carter or Biden,” McConnell said in a post on social platform X.

“‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding,” he added.

Despite the executive order, Trump will still need Congress to officially rename the Defense Department to the president’s intended new moniker. A few of his Republican allies in Congress are already on top of it, with Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) and Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) leading the effort in the upper chamber and introducing a War Department renaming bill. 

“The U.S. military is the most lethal fighting force on the planet, & restoring the Department of War name reflects our true capabilities to win wars, not just respond to them,” Scott posted on X. 

In the House, meanwhile, Rep. Greg Stuebe (R- Fla.) introduced a similar version of the Senate’s bill.

DOD was initially called the Department of War, or the War Department, from 1789 until after World War II in 1947. When President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 — splitting the Army and the Air Force into separate service branches — the two, along with the Navy, formed the National Military Establishment, headed by a secretary of defense. Two years later, Congress passed an act that coined the federal organization the Department of Defense.

The estimate to change the names of hundreds of Pentagon agencies and all their stationary, emblems and signage — both at home in the U.S. and at bases overseas — has been placed at upwards of billions of dollars. 

Pentagon officials and Trump himself, however, have sought to downplay such concerns. 

A War Department official said in a statement that the “cost estimate will fluctuate as we carry out President Trump’s directive to establish the Department of War’s name. We will have a clearer estimate to report at a later time.”

And Trump from the Oval Office said the costs could be spaced out via a phased approach, such as simply updating old stationary when it needs to be replenished.

“We know how to rebrand without having to go crazy,” he said. “We don’t have to recarve a mountain or anything. We’re going to be doing it not in the most expensive [way].”

Wilkerson told The Hill that many former and current national security officials he’s spoken to about the change simply “don’t like it.”

“They don’t like any of this changing, and most of them will say that they don’t like it because it’s an administrative nightmare,” he said. “That’s just the fundamental practicality of most Americans, including soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, space guardsmen and others. They just don’t like the administrative crap that goes along with it.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a video to social media Friday showing the nameplate on his office being changed to reflect President Trump’s renaming of the Department of Defense.

A video Hegseth posted to the social media platform X shows the nameplate on his office door being swapped out to one that reads “Secretary of War.”

The title change reflects Trump’s Friday executive order that renamed the department the “Department of War.”

Congress will have to approve the name change before it’s official. Republicans, led by Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), unveiled legislation Friday to help the process.

The rebrand is an ode to the original Department of War established under former President Washington in 1789. The Department of Defense was established in 1949.

“Really it has to do with winning,” Trump said of what inspired the rebranding. “We should have won every war. We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey and we just fight forever.”

Hegseth began rolling out the new moniker Thursday, thanking reporters for “traveling with the War Department.”