By Lucy Bayly
NBC News

The economy added around 1.4 million jobs last month, reflecting a slow return to labor market growth, according to data released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate fell into the single digits for the first time since the pandemic began, dropping from 10.2 percent to 8.4 percent, the monthly report showed. Before the coronavirus' stranglehold on the economy, the rate was at 3.5 percent, the lowest in five decades.


"Great Jobs Numbers!" President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday morning after the numbers were released. "1.37 Million Jobs Added In August. Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!). Broke the 10% level faster and deeper than thought possible."

The August data indicates a halting recovery of the more than 22 million jobs lost since March, with July's revised total of 1.73 million gains and June's addition of 4.8 million positions.

"We have had three huge months of job gains, but so far have regained less than half of the losses in March and April," said Dan North, senior economist at Euler Hermes North America. "Job gains so far have probably been the easy ones to get, where a business opened back up and brought back in its employees."

The payrolls report is the first one issued since the CARES Act expired — along with its $600 in additional weekly unemployment benefits. Lawmakers continue to debate the finer points of a further coronavirus fiscal aid package, with some Republicans expressing concern that the "generous" unemployment stipend acts as a deterrent to those who would otherwise be attempting a return to the workforce.

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Go, Trump, go all out!

UP YOU TRUMP. WELL DONE.