US job growth exceeded forecasts in July, unemployment rate fell to lowest since the start of the pandemic

On Friday, the Labor Department released a report that is under intense public scrutiny. He showed that US employment rose more than expected in July.
The Labor Department said non-farm employment increased by 943,000 jobs in July, after a revised upward 938,000 job growth in June.

Economists had expected employment to increase by 870,000 jobs, up from the 850,000 jobs originally reported in the previous month.

US job growth exceeded forecasts in July, unemployment rate fell to lowest since the start of the pandemic

Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at Capital Economics, said the data "indicates that employment is growing at a faster rate and that farm labor shortages are easing."

"This suggests that the pace of economic growth may be holding up better than we thought, and leaves open the possibility that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, at the Jackson Hole meeting in three weeks, will hint that rate cuts are not far off." Hunter added.
Stronger-than-expected job growth was driven in part by a surge in employment in the leisure and hospitality sectors, as well as in local education authorities. There, the number of places increased by 380,000 and 221,000, respectively.
Reflecting strong job growth, the unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent in July from 5.9 percent in June. It fell to its lowest level since March 2020. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to fall to 5.7 percent.
The larger-than-expected decline in unemployment was due to the fact that household employment rose sharply by 1.043 million, while the labor force increased by 261,000.

The report also said that the average hourly earnings of workers in July rose by $ 0.11, or 0.4 percent, to $ 30.54. Annual wage growth increased to 4.0 percent in July from 3.7 percent in June.
FX24

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