The creation of new jobs in the US continued its slowdown in July, although the unemployment rate hardly changed, since it fell just one tenth, to 3.5% compared to the previous month, according to data published this Friday by the Statistics Office Labor Laws (BLS).
New job creation slowed considerably in the seventh month of the year, with 187,000 net new jobs, well below the average of 312,000 for the previous 12 months.
The new jobs were in the health care sectors, which added 63,000 new jobs in July; social assistance (24,000), financial activities (19,000), and wholesale trade (18,000).
Regarding unemployment, it remained practically unchanged in July, with a total of 5.8 million people without work. The number of long-term unemployed continued with hardly any changes, 1.2 million people in July, which represents 19.9% of the unemployed.
The slowdown in job creation is an indication that the labor market is gradually cooling off, which is in line with the objectives of the Federal Reserve (Fed), which seeks to reduce inflation.
The US central bank decided at the end of last month to resume interest rate hikes, after a pause in June, with an increase of 0.25 percentage points, in such a way that they came to stand in a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, reaching its highest level since 2001.
Despite this being the eleventh rate hike since March 2022, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell believes that it will still “take time” to see the effects of the central bank’s monetary policy, “especially on inflation.”
Even so, the US economy continues to show signs of strength and registered growth of 0.6% in the second quarter of the year compared to the three previous months.
The annual growth rate between April and June was 2.4%.
According to these data, the growth of the world’s leading economy has accelerated, since in the first quarter it was half a point in quarter-on-quarter terms and 2% in annual rhythm.
However, this week the downgrade of the US debt rating by the Fitch agency fell like a bucket of cold water, which decided to lower the US debt to AA+, one point below the highest grade.
