Hiring stalls in August, leaving mortgage market in limbo
A Fed rate hike could mean lower mortgage rates. Veteran bond trader Billy Abrams says chart patterns point to a Treasury rally before yields climb again. Read more now.https://t.co/YT9a5YA014#mortgage #FederalReserve #bondmarket #IFSecurities
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) August 21, 2026
Gains narrow to a handful of sectors
Education and health services led all categories with 45,000 jobs added, followed by leisure and hospitality at 16,000 and construction at 12,000.
Outside that narrow cluster, the picture was largely negative. Manufacturing shed 17,000 jobs, professional and business services fell 16,000, and natural resources and mining alongside trade, transportation, and utilities each declined 5,000.
Large employers drove the headline. Companies with 500 or more workers added 34,000 positions, while businesses with fewer than 50 employees contributed just 3,000.
Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, singled out manufacturing as the report’s most troubling signal. “If you want to look for places of disappointment, [manufacturing] is the one I would point to,” she told reporters Wednesday.
“It’s kind of retreated back to its long-term job loss instead of job creation. So we’re going to be watching that sector to see if this is the reversion back to a declining trend after a few months of at least a little bit of positivity.”
