Payrolls Rise by 144,000 in August; Manufacturing Adds 22,000 Jobs

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mployers added 144,000 workers to payrolls in August, and the manufacturing sector added 22,000 positions, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists expected payrolls to rise by 150,000, Bloomberg reported. August's increase followed a revised gain of 73,000 in July that was originally reported to be 32,000.

Labor also said the unemployment rate, measured through a separate survey of households, fell to 5.4%, the lowest since October 2001, from 5.5%. The survey of about 60,000 households showed a 21,000 increase in employment and a 152,000 drop in the labor force, the report said.

The survey used to calculate the payroll figure is based on information from about 160,000 businesses and government agencies, covering roughly 400,000 individual work sites. It is seen as a better barometer of the labor market's health by many economists, Reuters reported.

For the factory sector, one of trucking's largest and most important customers, the creation of 22,000 jobs was the biggest since May and was the sixth increase in the past seven months. The manufacturing workweek held at 40.9 hours and overtime was steady at 4.6 hours for a fourth straight month.

Labor said employment in service-producing industries rose 108,000 last month after rising 58,000 in July.

Hurricane Charley, which struck Florida on Aug. 13, had "no discernible" effect on August's payrolls, Labor said.

The United States has added 1.4 million jobs in 2004 and had a net loss of about 913,000 since President Bush took office in January 2001. Payrolls have grown 12 straight months.

Economists want to see at least 200,000 net jobs added a month on a consistent basis before declaring the labor market fully healed, the Associated Press reported.