U.S. employers added back more jobs than expected last month, with payroll gains moving in tandem with improving economic activity and consumer mobility during the recovery. The jobless rate also fell to the lowest level since March 2020, improving more than expected.
The U.S. Labor Department released its July jobs report Friday morning and here are the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Change in non-farm payrolls: plus 943,000 vs. plus 865,000 expected and a revised plus 938,000 in June
- Unemployment rate: 5.4 percent vs. 5.7 percent expected and 5.9 percent in June
- Average hourly earnings, month-on-month: 0.4 percent vs. 0.3 percent expected and 0.3 percent in June
- Average hourly earnings, year-on-year: 4.0 percent vs. 3.9 percent expected and 3.6 percent in June
At 943,000, payrolls last month grew by the most since August 2020. Job growth was also upwardly revised for May, coming in at 614,000 versus the 583,000 previously reported, and for June, with an upward revision to 938,000 from 850,000.
The economy, however, is still trying to recoup millions of jobs lost since the start of the pandemic. On net, the economy has shed 5.7 million payroll jobs since March of last year, with much of this deficit still present in the leisure and hospitality industries. These employers shed a total of nearly 2 million jobs since the pandemic first brought about shutdowns across the U.S.
Click here to see the full report from Emily McCormick in Yahoo Finance.