In July, the economy in the U.S. added significantly fewer jobs than expected in another indication of labor demand cooling in the world’s biggest economy.
According to Labor Department data on Friday, last month, nonfarm payrolls were at 114K, the lowest since Jan. 2021, down from June’s revised 179K. Economists had expected the July number at 177K.
The June reading was revised lower from the initial number of 206K. The May reading was also revised 2K lower to 216K, and this meant employment in May and June together was 29K lower than reported previously.
Employment in construction, health care, warehousing, and transportation continued to trend up, while jobs were lost in information.
In June, the unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.3% and climbed in each of the last 3 months. Average hourly wage growth came in at 0.2% month-on-month, lower than the 0.3% expected.
Over the last 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.6%.
Data from earlier this week showed that U.S. job openings dropped slightly in June, while first-time applications for unemployment benefits last week rose to an 11-month peak.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark overnight interest rate in the range of between 5.25% and 5.50% but opened the door to cutting borrowing costs.
