Union workers in Rhode Island protest a Trump administration stop-work order at an offshore wind farm under construction in August. Friday's jobs report shows the fewest gains in August since 2010. (Photo by Laura Paton/Rhode Island Current)
The United States added only 22,000 jobs in August, and previously reported gains in June were revised down to a loss of 13,000 jobs in a Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued Friday morning.
The August jobs increase was the lowest for that month since 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession. June’s decrease was the first jobs loss since a December 2020 COVID-19 surge shuttered restaurants and hotels.
A recent Stateline analysis showed that Virginia and New Jersey may be among the states most affected by recent hiring slowdowns, based on surveys and layoff reports, while California and Texas appeared to continue job gains.
Job openings fell to a 10-month low in July, according to a separate government report issued Sept. 3, and there were more unemployed people than jobs available for the first time since 2021.
Last month’s revisions to the jobs report enraged President Donald Trump when they first appeared Aug. 1. The revisions showed the nation had 258,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in May and June.
In response, Trump declared the numbers were wrong, fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief, Erika McEntarfer. He offered as a replacement E.J. Antoni, a loyalist who has proposed suspending the jobs report entirely. Trump falsely said in a Truth Social post at the time that the revised jobs numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
Friday’s report showed August job losses in business and professional services (-17,000), government (-16,000), manufacturing (-12,000), wholesale trade (-11,700) and construction (-7,000), but gains in health care and social assistance (+46,800) and hospitality (+28,000).
The unemployment rate in August ticked up to 4.3%, from 4.2% in July and 4.1% in June. It increased the most for people with less than a high school diploma, up from 5.5% in July to 5.7% in August.
Unemployment ticked up for Black workers (to 7.5% from 7.2%) and Hispanic workers (to 5.3% from 5.0% in July). The rate went down for Asian workers (to 3.6% from 3.9%) and remained the same for white workers at 3.7%.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to add details about changes in industry job numbers and the unemployment rate.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Reading Time: 3minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
A judge’s order promises compensation to potentially thousands of disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
The invalidated law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) from collecting unemployment insurance.
Two classes of workers may be eligible for compensation: those denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, under the invalidated law, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
A federal judge has ordered Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development to compensate disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
U.S. District Judge William Conley’s order promises relief to potentially thousands of workers affected by a 2013 Wisconsin law that banned recipients of federal disability aid from collecting unemployment compensation when they lost work.
But many details remain to be ironed out, including how quickly the state will reprocess a decade’s worth of denied claims and whether any claims should draw priority.
“Some work needs to be done yet to put the order into practice, and counsels for the class are working diligently to get to that point,” said Paul Kinne, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs.
Conley issued his order Wednesday following a hearing in which attorneys representing workers and the state discussed remedies for denials under a law that Conley ruled violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
The overturned law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) — a monthly benefit for people with disabilities who have worked and paid into Social Security — from collecting unemployment insurance.
Republican lawmakers who approved the law claimed in 2013 that simultaneously collecting disability and unemployment benefits represented “double dipping.” But SSDI guidelines have long allowed and even encouraged recipients to supplement their income with part-time work, so long as their earnings remain below the threshold of “substantial gainful activity.”
Conley’s order covers two classes: workers who were denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, due to receiving SSDI, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
Not every class member is automatically entitled to benefits, Kinne said, and it may take time to determine eligibility. That’s due to a variety of factors, including potential difficulties in retrieving and analyzing past claims data — and locating the claimants. Still, Kinne expects an “overwhelming majority” of class members to be compensated.
In addition to receiving compensation for past denied claims, class members can file certifications for subsequent weeks in which they were told they were ineligible to file. These certifications should be submitted within 90 days of receiving notice from the department, the order said.
Eugene Wilson of Madison, Wis., receives federal Social Security Disability Insurance due to health issues that prevent him from working full time. After he lost his part-time job during the pandemic, the state denied his unemployment claim — citing a law that banned workers on disability from collecting unemployment insurance. He’s among workers who may be eligible to be compensated for past denials after a federal judge struck down the ban. He is shown with his dog Kane on Aug. 18, 2025. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
The order also states that claimants who were charged with unemployment fraud for not properly disclosing their SSDI status will be eligible for benefits they had to repay.
Class members who received federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) — aid for people who lost work during the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular benefits — will not receive additional benefits for weeks in which they already received pandemic aid. PUA claims were paid at a higher rate than regular benefits, Conley’s order states, and federal law bans the collection of both.
The Department of Workforce Development will begin notifying affected workers by Oct. 1, the order said. The parties must still agree on the language for those notifications, which should inform affected workers about the outcome of the lawsuit and how to claim benefits to which they should be entitled.
“I was generally pleased with the order,” Kinne said. “There is now light at the end of the tunnel for disabled people to receive the unemployment compensation that they should have received in the past.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Reading Time: 5minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
A 2013 state law prevented recipients of federal Social Security Disability Insurance from collecting state unemployment insurance after losing part-time work.
A federal judge struck down the law, ruling that it had “disparate impact on disabled workers seeking unemployment insurance benefits.”
A hearing will explore whether and how the state should compensate workers for past denied claims.
Wisconsin has stopped blocking laid-off workers who receive disability benefits from collecting unemployment insurance — a response to court rulings that the practice violated federal discrimination law.
Now U.S. District Judge William Conley will consider whether and how the state should compensate workers for past denied claims. Attorneys representing the state and affected workers plan to propose remedies ahead of a hearing on Wednesday.
“In my eyes, we deserve all of it,” James Trandel, a longtime seasonal worker who faced denials for years, told Wisconsin Watch. “The law should have never been.”
The state law in question prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) — a monthly benefit for people with disabilities who have worked and paid into Social Security — from collecting unemployment insurance after losing work.
Eugene Wilson is shown with his dog Kane on Aug. 18, 2025. He has tried for years to return to the workforce, but he rarely hears back after filing applications. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
In proposing the law under Gov. Scott Walker in 2013, Republican lawmakers claimed that simultaneously collecting disability and unemployment benefits represented “double dipping” that “may constitute fraud.”
That overlooked the fact that SSDI guidelines have long allowed and even encouraged people on disability to supplement their income with part-time work, so long as their earnings remain below the threshold of “substantial gainful activity.”
Eight SSDI recipients, with help from attorneys, challenged the law in 2021 by filing a class action lawsuit.
Conley ruled in July 2024 that the law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, citing its “disparate impact on disabled workers seeking unemployment insurance benefits.”
But the ruling was not immediately implemented. The state’s Department of Workforce Development continued denying unemployment claims until Conley ordered it to stop in July.
DWD spokesperson Haley McCoy said the department did not oppose Conley’s order to stop enforcing the law he struck down, but she declined further comment due to pending litigation.
The lawsuit covers two classes: workers who were denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, due to receiving SSDI, and those who had to repay benefits they received for the same reason.
Conley will now consider who in those classes qualifies for benefits and how much they should get.
Both parties will exchange proposals before Wednesday’s oral arguments to address such questions, said Victor Forberger, an attorney for the plaintiffs who has helped many SSDI recipients pursue their claims. The plaintiffs want the state to fairly compensate those who faced discriminatory denials, he added.
The discussions may also involve how to address past claims for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) — aid for people who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular benefits. The state initially denied PUA claims from workers on disability, but it reversed course in mid-2020 following Wisconsin Watch and WPR’s reporting on the denials.
“No one’s asking to get paid benefits twice. They’re just asking to get paid to be treated just like everyone else,” Forberger said.
Fighting for future generations
Trandel, who has used a wheelchair since a 1983 fall left his legs paralyzed, filed for unemployment for years during the off-seasons of his job as a gate chief for the Milwaukee Brewers, where he helps with tickets and security. He has since hit retirement age, now 67, allowing him to switch from SSDI to Social Security retirement benefits. The state allowed him to collect a couple of weeks of state unemployment pay for the first time this spring because he was no longer on SSDI.
Although Trandel managed to get by without the state fulfilling his past claims, he believes that compensating workers for past denials would offer a measure of justice.
But even if that doesn’t happen, he’s proud of what the lawsuit has accomplished so far.
“If I get nothing, that’s fine,” Trandel said. “At least the law’s changed so the future generations won’t have to go through what we went through the last 12 years.”
James Trandel, center, is seen at American Family Field with a group of baseball fans. Trandel works as a gate chief for the Milwaukee Brewers, helping with tickets and security. (Courtesy of James Trandel)
Judy Fintz, a seasonal worker and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, hopes that allowing SSDI recipients to collect unemployment like others will eliminate one of the many barriers they face in interacting with a long-outdated system that’s undergoing an overhaul.
Fintz spends the school year cleaning tables, windows and soda machines part time at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse dining hall. She applied for unemployment during the off months from school, when she relies on SSDI while her bills pile up. That experience was far from smooth, even outside of the denials. She faced the difficulties of having to file claims by phone rather than online due to a severe learning disability, and she said she was treated poorly.
“This should really change everything around,” Fintz said of the court proceedings. “We should be able to get (unemployment insurance) without issue, so we can pay our bills.”
Reentering the workforce
As they await the outcome of litigation, some SSDI recipients are looking for more work that accommodates their disabilities.
Eugene Wilson of Madison is one such person. He deals with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder — conditions that make him easily overwhelmed by tasks and make repetitive work difficult.
Wilson found part-time work years ago before being laid off during the pandemic. He was denied regular unemployment and PUA during a process that took an additional toll on his mental health, he said.
He now receives about $1,500 a month in SSDI benefits and affords his apartment with the help of rental aid. He barely gets by.
He has tried for years to return to the workforce, but he rarely hears back after filing applications and sending thank-you messages.
“It’s like nobody wants to hire anybody on disability,” Wilson said.
“I just want to get out there and do it and show people that people on disability can do this.”
Jessica Barrera of Eau Claire lost her job during the pandemic and depended in part on Social Security Disability Insurance to survive. She spent six months fighting to receive her Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claim after being denied regular unemployment insurance, initially unaware of a state law that banned people on disability from collecting unemployment aid. “It really made me feel less than others,” Barrera said. (Courtesy of Jessica Barrera)
Jessica Barrera of Eau Claire has a similar goal. Wisconsin Watch followed her in 2020 as she navigated life as a single mother who lost her job during the pandemic and depended in part on SSDI to survive. She spent six months fighting to receive her PUA claim after being denied regular unemployment insurance, initially unaware of the 2013 state law.
“It really made me feel less than others,” Barrera said.
That pushed her toward a new goal: “to be equal” by earning a degree and returning to the workforce full time. Barrera is just two semesters away from earning her bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She works part time as a peer and parent support specialist, supporting families with mental health challenges — including those who face similar barriers to hers.
She lives with a rare disorder that makes her blood too thick, causing clots and severe fatigue that can make it hard to even get out of bed. Her current job gives her the flexibility to handle her frequent medical appointments and other challenges with the disease. Working full time will require finding an employer who understands her situation.
Barrera, who is not a plaintiff, encourages those seeking justice in court to stay hopeful and persistent.
“When I got the denial, had I just been like, ‘Well, I’m denied. I’m just out of luck’… Would we be where we are now?” Barrera said. “You have to sometimes be patient, but keep (up) the good fight.”
Confused about the unemployment system?
Forberger created this primer to help workers navigate the complicated process of filing unemployment claims and participating in the system.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many businesses closed or laid off workers, a massive influx of 8.8 million unemployment claims overwhelmed Wisconsin’s aging unemployment insurance system.
That created a backlog of hundreds of thousands of claims. Many potential applicants weren’t able to connect to the department’s call center to complete the process, and some Wisconsinites waited months without receiving a single unemployment payment.
Following those backlogs, the state has made strides to update the system and move away from outdated, decades-old computer systems, said state Department of Workforce Development Secretary Amy Pechacek.
She said DWD now has a digital portal for people to file unemployment claims and send documents online. The department also uses online chatbots to respond to questions in multiple languages, as well as uses artificial intelligence tools to assist with data entry.
“With these enhancements, the department is now paying 88% of all claims filed within three days or less,” Pechacek said. “That other 12% of claims that go a little bit longer are typically just because we have to do investigations if there’s some discrepancies between what the claimant and the employer are saying.”
In a letter to the Trump administration on Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers said the administration is blocking nearly $30 million in federal funding to Wisconsin, which could prevent the state from finishing the project and potentially leave it vulnerable to cyberattacks and fraud.
“If the Trump Administration does not reverse course and provide the $29 million Wisconsin expected to receive, the state will not be able to complete its UI system modernization project,” Evers wrote to U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
That funding was part of the American Rescue Plan Act, a pandemic recovery law signed by former President Joe Biden, and was being primarily used on anti-fraud measures, according to the governor’s office. Evers’ letter says the U.S. Labor Department “suddenly terminated” the funding in late May.
The termination halted work on identity authentication tools, a digital employer portal, artificial intelligence enhancements, fraud prevention and cybersecurity tools, according to Pechacek. She said the employer portal was the DWD’s next major rollout and would have made it easier for employers to provide information to the state.
“The employer portal is really one of the largest losses from this federal action,” Pechacek said. “Our employers … have to submit quarterly wage information (and) verify claim information, and some of those components are still very antiquated.”
Evers wrote that the Department of Labor “cited no objections” to those initiatives beyond “an unsupported assertion that they ‘no longer effectuate the Department’s priorities.’”
Pechacek said the state has already spent “slightly over half” of the $29 million. She said those grants were “reimbursement-based,” meaning the state first had to spend the money and then be paid back by the federal government.
“There are seven projects that have now been paused in a variety of different states of completion, so those are sunk costs,” she said. “Without realizing the full modernization effort, we can’t roll those projects out.”
The state appealed the Labor Department’s termination and received a letter from the federal government in late July that “acknowledged the appeal while restating the Department’s earlier basis for termination,” the governor’s letter states.
“The people of Wisconsin deserve systems that function, state of the art, with high integrity and accuracy,” Pechacek said. “We are also going to pursue litigation to reclaim the funds which were rightfully awarded to us already and improperly rescinded.”
In addition to the $29 million in lost funding, the project was using $80 million from a different program under the American Rescue Plan Act, according to a report sent to the Legislature’s budget committee. The document states that the $80 million has not been impacted but is “insufficient to support the full modernization work.”
Pechacek said DWD has also asked the state Legislature to allocate additional state funds toward finishing the effort but said there hasn’t been much movement on that front.
Wisconsin isn’t the only state that’s had federal funding to upgrade unemployment systems clawed back by the Trump administration. In May, Axios reported the White House terminated $400 million of that funding across the country. A July report from state agencies said $675 million in grants awarded to unemployment programs in over 30 states and territories had been terminated.
The U.S. Department of Labor did not immediately respond to WPR’s request for comment. In May, the federal agency told Axios in a statement that the unemployment modernization funding was “squandered” on “bureaucratic and wasteful projects that focused on equitable access rather than advancing access for all Americans in need.”
In the letter, Evers also said failing to complete Wisconsin’s modernization effort would put the state’s unemployment system at risk of becoming overwhelmed again during any future economic downturn. He says that would “create acute hardship for Wisconsin families.”
“It is our obligation to prevent this scenario from coming to pass,” Evers wrote. “I urge you to reverse the decision to defund these critical government efficiency and fraud prevention initiatives.”
Pechacek said the state isn’t reverting back to old technology in the pieces of the modernization that have already been completed in “major areas.” But she said failing to fully finish the effort poses a risk to Wisconsinites because there are still aspects of the system running on an outdated coding language.
“Any time we don’t fully invest in upgrading and reach the programmatic goals that we have set to get fully off of the antiquated systems, we are at risk to be overwhelmed again,” she said. “All of that leads us to be more vulnerable, in a time of significant increase of accessing the system, to the cyber attacks, to fraudulent efforts, to being compromised.”
Mural depicting workers painted on windows of the Madison-Kipp Corp. by Goodman Community Center students and Madison-Kipp employees with Dane Arts Mural Arts. (Photo by Erik Gunn /Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin’s jobs and employment numbers showed a slightly softening economy in July, following national trends, the state labor department reported Thursday.
“The Wisconsin labor market has cooled a bit along with the national economy. Unemployment remains historically low,” said Scott Hodek, section chief in the office of economic advisors for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), in a briefing on the July numbers.
Private-sector jobs dropped slightly in July from June, DWD reported. Employment and labor force participation edged down slightly, too, as did the state’s unemployment rate.
“What we’re seeing is that Wisconsin seems to be following the national trend,” Hodek told the Wisconsin Examiner. While the economy is cooling down, “we’re actually still seeing historically low unemployment rates,” Hodek said. “So you’ve got kind of a mix of up and down indicators.”
He pointed to national economic uncertainty as well as the longstanding challenge of Wisconsinites aging out of the workforce faster than younger residents are entering it as likely contributors to the economic cooling.
DWD pegged the number of Wisconsinites working in July at 3.05 million, a drop of 4,500 from June and down 32,500 from July 2024.
The number of people who were unemployed in July was projected at 98,600 — down 2,200 from June, but up 5,400 from July 2024. The unemployment rate for July was 3.1%.
The labor force shrank in July to just under 3.15 million, a decline of 6,700 from June and a decline of 27,000 from July 2024. The labor force is defined as people 16 or older who are working or seeking work, excluding people in the military or who are in institutions such as nursing homes or prisons.
Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate was 65% of the state’s population 16 or older in July — down 0.1% from June and down just under 1% from July a year ago. Labor force participation remains ahead of the U.S. as a whole, while unemployment is lower, DWD reported.
Employment and labor force participation numbers are projected from a monthly survey of households. A separate survey, polling employers, produces data on the number of jobs in the state.
Wisconsin counted just under 3.06 million nonfarm jobs — an increase of 1,800 over June and 20,200 over July a year ago. Private sector jobs in July totaled more than 2.6 million, a decrease of 3,800 from June but still 15,100 ahead of July 2024.
Construction jobs fell by 500 from June, Hodek said, but remained 3,100 ahead of July 2024. Manufacturing jobs fell by 500, and are down 1,800 from a year ago.
Rosier picture in Wisconsin than broader U.S.
Wisconsin’s jobs report Thursday lacked the drama of the national jobs numbers reported two weeks ago that prompted President Donald Trump to fire the nation’s chief statistician.
On Friday, Aug. 1, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)reported the U.S. gained 73,000 jobs in July, below analysts’ estimates. The BLS also updated national job numbers for May and June, dramatically reducing both: in June, a gain of 14,000 jobs instead of previously reported 147,000, and in May, an increase of 19,000 instead of the previously reported 125,000.
The national unemployment rate of 4.2% was in line with economic forecasts, CNBC reported. Other indicators nationally added up to “a slow but persistent cooling trend,” the North America regional president at Manpower Group, Ger Doyle, told CNBC.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to declare without evidence that the numbers were “RIGGED.” He summarily fired the director of the BLS,replacing her this week with an economist from the far-right Heritage Foundation who has called for a broad overhaul of the agency.
Hodek told the Wisconsin Examiner Thursday that DWD has not received any communications about changes in procedure from the BLS.
“We’ve certainly seen the news and we’re monitoring the situation, of course,” Hodek said. “But we do have confidence in our data and we can’t really speculate on what could possibly happen. We’ll just need to wait and see what the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually does down the road.”
Hodek said that revisions of previous months’ reports are “a normal part of the data process.” The first round of data isn’t inaccurate, but “as you take more time, the data become more accurate,” he said.
“Ideally you want a combination of both — something that kind of gives you the current edge of where you’re headed, and then as more and better data come in, you get a better sense of what has been happening,” Hodek said.
For example, a quarterly collection of information from the unemployment insurance system “actually covers most employers and it’s very solid data,” he said. “But it lags by half a year.”
Information from that report can be used to further refine the calculations and assumptions that go into the state’s monthly reports.
The monthly numbers for the nation as a whole and for each state go through different calculations and formulas, Hodek said, so it’s not possible to draw direct connections between the state jobs numbers and the national jobs numbers.
It’s also too soon to explain the seemingly dramatic differences between the national jobs picture and Wisconsin’s, he added: “We’ve only got a couple of data points where we saw those large revisions, so that doesn’t really make a trend necessarily yet.”
Hodek doesn’t think Wisconsin is somehow “diverging from the national economy,” however, he said. “In fact, it’s fairly unlikely in general, just because what happens to the national economy and the global economy is going to impact us as well. We tend to follow the national and global trends.”
Login
