The great American jobs machine is flagging, showing signs of its age and damage from an intensifying trade war with China and a slowing global economy.

The latest evidence came Friday, when the Labor Department said the economy added 130,000 jobs in August, below what analysts had expected. That number would have been considerably lower were it not for the addition of 25,000 temporary census workers.

The report was not all bleak — wages rose at a healthy clip, and people who had not been looking for work returned to the job market — but the signs of a slowdown were unmistakable. The private sector added just 96,000 jobs, a steep deceleration from earlier in the year.

The report also revised down job gains for June and July by a total of 20,000.

“We’ve lost steam — there’s no question we are slowing,” said Diane Swonk , chief economist at Grant Thornton. “We are losing momentum.”