America’s economy defies gloomy expectations

Photograph: Getty Images

Sep 14th 2025 (updated Sep 17th 2025)|Washington, DC|4 min read

Only America’s most confident economic bulls will have remained upbeat this far into 2025. Any flickerings of optimism that survived the tariff chaos of spring and this summer’s growth slowdown will have taken another hit in early September, when employment figures came in weak for the second time in a row. America added less than 30,000 jobs on average in June, July and August, the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) announced.