US economy adds 943,00 jobs in July as recovery powers on | Business and Economy News
The US economy added nearly 9.5 million jobs in July, while the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent.
The economic recovery in the United States is powering forward, with the latest report card on the nation’s labour market showing a boost in jobs creation and a fall in unemployment.
Employers in the world’s largest economy added 943,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the US Department of Labor said on Friday. That headline number was stronger than many economists were expecting.
The unemployment rate fell by half a percentage point to 5.4 percent in July, while the number of Americans either in work or actively looking for a job ticked up ever so slightly from 61.6 percent in June to 61.7 percent July.
That metric, known as the labour force participation rate, has been a closely watched barometer during the recovery because many workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic remain on the sidelines, despite a record number of job openings in the US.
Since February 2020, the labour force participating rate has been stuck in a narrow range of 61.4 percent to 61.7 percent.
Americans continued to get a bump in pay last month, with average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increasing by 11 cents to $30.54 – marking the fourth consecutive month of strong gains. Average hourly wages also climbed for workers in lower-skilled, lower-paying jobs – increasing by 11 cents to $25.83 last month.
“The data for recent months suggest that the rising demand for labor associated with the recovery from the pandemic may have put upward pressure on wages,” said the US Department of Labor in a press release.
