Employee Participation

American employers cut back sharply on hiring last month, crushing hopes that the job market was improving and putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to give the sluggish economy another jolt.

The fact is, the American economy managed to churn out 96,000 jobs last month, according to the latest labor Department report. It was enough to tamp down the unemployment rate from Julys 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent.

When workplace annoyances hit, it makes the life of employees much harder, and often employees find themselves struggling to complete their work, says Carol Fitzgibbons, an HR expert at BPI Group, a global management and human resources consulting firm in Chicago.

While the worker confidence level is more than 10 points higher from August 2011, it is 51.6 in August 2012, only 0.8 points down from July 2012, according to the most recent Randstad Employee Confidence Index.

The Canadian economy added 34,300 new jobs in August, topping expectations of only modest gains and reversing the previous month's setback, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs last month, a weak figure that could slow the momentum President Barack Obama hoped to gain from his speech Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention.