According to some estimates, the U.S. economy added 750,000 non-farm jobs last month

The run of strong hiring may have slowed in August — with the delta variant’s spread having an impact.

Some Americans may not have been able to fly, shop or eat out because of this variant.

Friday’s monthly employment report will be released by the government.

The Labor Department is expected to say the U.S. economy added 728,000 new nonfarm jobs last month. That would be down from July’s stronger-than-expected tally of 943,000.

Analysts who expect job growth of less than 500,000 are more pessimistic.

The unemployment rate will fall by 0.2 percentage points to 5.2%. This is the lowest level since March 2020.

Friday’s report will conclude a week of labor-related reporting, including ADP reports on private sector hiring and weekly jobless claims numbers.

The Labor Department reported that 340,000 Americans applied for their first-time unemployment benefits during the week ending Aug. 28, a decrease of 14,000 over the previous week.

ADP reported Wednesday that the economy added 374,000 jobs in the private sector in August. This is a slight increase over the 326,000 jobs added in July. Refinitiv polled analysts and predicted an increase of 613,000 jobs.

Employers are still struggling to fill jobs to meet strengthened consumer demand and have posted a record-high number of openings.

A few months ago, many economists, along with officials at the Federal Reserve and the White House, had looked forward to September and the ensuing months as a period when the job market would return to a consistently strong state from the brief but deep pandemic recession.

This theory was supported by increased vaccinations, and people would be more willing to accept jobs as the fear surrounding the virus diminished.