Defying anxiety about a possible recession and high inflation, US employers added 528,000 jobs last month, restoring all the jobs lost in the coronavirus recession. Unemployment fell to 3.5%, the lowest since the pandemic struck in early 2020.
July job creation was up from June’s 398,000 and the most since February.
Friday’s Labor Department employment figures come amid a growing consensus that the US economy is losing momentum. The US economy contracted in the first two quarters of 2022, an informal definition of a recession. But most economists believe the strong job market has kept the economy from sliding into recession.
The surprisingly strong jobs numbers will no doubt intensify the debate over whether or not America is in a recession.
“Recession, what recession?” wrote Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, after the figures were released. “The US economy is creating new jobs at an annual rate of 6 million, that’s three times faster than we normally see historically in a good year.”
Economists expected just 250,000 new jobs this month.
The Labor Department also reviewed hiring for May and June, saying an additional 28,000 jobs were created in those months. Job growth was especially strong last month in the healthcare industry and in hotels and restaurants.
Hourly earnings posted a healthy 0.5% increase last month and are up 5.2% over the past year, still not enough to keep up with inflation.
The unemployment rate fell as the number of Americans who said they had a job increased by 179,000 and the number who said they were unemployed fell by 242,000. But 61,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force in July, cutting the share of those working or looking for work to 62.1% last month from 62.2% in June.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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