Employers in the United States added 187,000 jobs last month, less than expected. However, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, an indication that the labor market remains resilient.
Hiring rose 185,000 in June, a figure that the Labor Department corrected from the initially reported 209,000. Economists had anticipated 200,000 hirings in July.
Still, hiring last month was strong, considering that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times since March 2022. And the US central bank will be pleased that more Americans entered the job market last month. past, easing the pressure on employers to raise wages and to attract and retain their staff.
“This is a strong, positive report,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at the ZipRecruiter jobs website. “The worst fears that people had of a painful recession, job losses, longer unemployment spells, all of those things, are not being realized.”
Unemployment fell as 152,000 Americans entered the job market. The number of unemployed decreased by 116,000.
Despite the increase in workers in the market, the average hourly wage increased by 0.4% compared to June and by 4.4% compared to the same month of the previous year, figures higher than anticipated and that could worry the Fed .
The Labor Department corrected downward the payroll figures for May and June, reducing the number of jobs created in those months by 49,000. In July, companies in the health sector added 63,000 jobs.
The US economy and job market have repeatedly defied predictions of a recession. Economists now express confidence that the Federal Reserve is succeeding in its attempt to achieve a “soft landing,” that is, raising interest rates enough to suppress inflation but not enough to push the economy toward a recession.
And consumers are feeling optimistic, too: The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence last month hit its highest level in two years.
There is other evidence that the labor market, while robust, is losing momentum. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings fell to less than 9.6 million in June, the lowest number in more than two years: The monthly job openings number had never been above 8 million before 2021. The number of people who have quit their jobs – an indication that they are confident they will find something better elsewhere – also fell in June but remains above their pre-pandemic levels.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
