More than 100,000 people have been laid off by the federal government in August, according to the Labor Department, an unprecedented drop in federal job growth and a sharp fall in unemployment.
The agency reported Thursday that the August jobless rate stood at 5.1 percent, unchanged from the previous month.
The August rate is the lowest since March of 2015.
The unemployment rate, however, has increased slightly in the last month.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday the country has added more than 1.2 million jobs in the past six months.
That’s a rise of more than 20,000 since August.
The number of jobs added last month was 2.2.
million, a slight decrease from last month’s 3.4 million.
The number of people without a job has been steadily rising since the recession ended in 2009.
The bureau reported Thursday it added nearly 13 million jobs during the first six months of this year, the fastest pace in nearly four decades.
The federal government is on pace to lose about 7 million jobs, or 0.5 percent, during the year.
The unemployment rate for adults was 4.6 percent in August.
It was 5.0 percent in July.
The Labor Department said the jobs report comes as companies and workers are trying to recover from the storming of the federal building in Washington, D.C. The department has said that the number of federal workers laid off is expected to climb as the storm approaches.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.