45th straight month with the unemployment rate above 8.0%.

Via Bloomberg:

Payrolls rose less than projected in August and the unemployment rate declined as more Americans left the labor force, indicating the U.S. labor market is stagnating.

The economy added 96,000 workers last month following a revised 141,000 rise in July that was smaller than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 92 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a gain of 130,000. Unemployment unexpectedly fell to 8.1 percent, and hourly earnings were unchanged.

Employers may be reluctant to expand headcounts as they face a global economic slowdown and the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and government spending cuts. The damage inflicted by the lack of progress on jobs is the reason Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said the central bank may need to do more.

The jobless rate fell from 8.3 percent as 368,000 Americans left the labor force. Unemployment was forecast to hold at 8.3 percent, according to the survey median. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 8.1 percent to 8.4 percent.

Update: Via AEI’s James Pethokoukis:

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