<p>Most analysts had expected 93,000 new positions last month, but job losses in the public sector outweighed new hires by private employers.<br /><br />The August report is the first since February 1945 to show no net change in employment.<br />Besides the disappointing numbers for August, the Labor Department also reduced its estimates for June and July by a total of 58,000, meaning that only 105,000 new jobs were created in the two-month period.<br /><br />Economists say the US needs to create around 150,000 new positions every month just to keep pace with population growth, while it will take a substantially higher rate of employment expansion to recoup the 8.4 million jobs destroyed in the recession.<br /><br />The ranks of people who have been out of work for more than six months held steady in August at 6 million, representing 42.9 percent of the jobless.<br /><br />The workforce participation rate - the proportion of the population working or seeking work - climbed slightly last month to 64 percent after reaching a 27-year low in July.<br /><br />Job creation has slowed "notably" since April, Labor Department statistician Keith Hall said Friday.</p>
<p>Most analysts had expected 93,000 new positions last month, but job losses in the public sector outweighed new hires by private employers.<br /><br />The August report is the first since February 1945 to show no net change in employment.<br />Besides the disappointing numbers for August, the Labor Department also reduced its estimates for June and July by a total of 58,000, meaning that only 105,000 new jobs were created in the two-month period.<br /><br />Economists say the US needs to create around 150,000 new positions every month just to keep pace with population growth, while it will take a substantially higher rate of employment expansion to recoup the 8.4 million jobs destroyed in the recession.<br /><br />The ranks of people who have been out of work for more than six months held steady in August at 6 million, representing 42.9 percent of the jobless.<br /><br />The workforce participation rate - the proportion of the population working or seeking work - climbed slightly last month to 64 percent after reaching a 27-year low in July.<br /><br />Job creation has slowed "notably" since April, Labor Department statistician Keith Hall said Friday.</p>