July’s employment report released Friday morning showed jobs increased, surpassing expectations, according to the Employment Situation Summary report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July, according to the report. This is up from ADP and Moody's Analytics’ National Employment Report, which predicted an increase of 178,000.
But that wasn’t the only expectations the jobs report beat. In his daily report to clients, Brent Nyitray, iServe Residential Lending director of capital markets said, “The street is looking for 178,000 jobs in Friday's employment situation report.”
However, this uptick is a slight slowdown from June’s increase of 222,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3% with number of unemployed hovering at 7 million people. The labor force participation rate also showed little change, remaining at 62.9% in July.
Here are some of the areas which showed job growth:
- Leisure and hospitality increased by 53,000
- Employment in health care increased by 39,000
- Mining increased by 1,000
- Employment in professional and business services increased by 49,000
Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities and government, showed little change over the month.
While the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained unchanged at 34.5 hours, average hourly earnings increased nine cents to $26.36 in July.