July Payrolls Upbeat On All Counts: The US Unemployment Rate at 16-year Low

The much-anticipated payrolls report for the month of July came with a lot of positives. The data helped the US dollar to recover from the strong losses that have been mounting.

In a week that saw the ISM’s manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMI’s both coming out weaker than expected, the July payrolls report was a welcome change.

The US employers were seen hiring at a healthy rate in the month of July. This sent the US unemployment rate to a 16-year low at 4.3%, as expected by economists. In June, the unemployment rate was at 4.4%. The unemployment rate had fallen to 4.3% in May this year.

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--Payrolls rise 209k in July--

According to the data from the Labor Department, nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 209,000 jobs in the month of July from the previous month. This was higher than the economists’ forecasts which projected a number of 180k during the period.

The payroll numbers for June were also revised higher to show 231k, but May’s payrolls were revised down to 145k. Still, for the past two months, the revisions saw additional 2k jobs being added.

The July payrolls report was clearly a bright spot in the US data in an otherwise disappointing week. Although growth in the US has slowed to an average of 2% and a weak pace of inflation, the US labor market continues to grow strongly.

For the most part of this year, hiring in the United States remained steady, despite some hiccups from inflation and even growth.

Health care, leisure, and other services sectors remained the key drivers of the jobs market last month. Manufacturing jobs also helped as the sector posted a second straight month of gains. Government jobs were seen lagging.

The labor force participation rate, which is also closely watched, showed a modest increase of 62.9% in July. This was higher than June’s 62.8%.

Read more: https://www.orbex.com/blog/2017/08/july-payrolls-upbeat-counts/

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