U.S. Economy Adds 1.8 Million Jobs in July, Unemployment Rate Fall to 10.2%
JOHN CARNEY 7 Aug 2020
FTA
The U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent, providing reassurance that the labor market has kept up some of its post-lockdown momentum.
The numbers were better than anticipated. Economists had forecast an addition of around 1.5 million jobs and a decline in the unemployment rate to 10.6 percent from 11.1 percent last week.
The economy has added around 9.1 million jobs in the past three months. The increase in the ranks of employed workers shows that companies ramped up hiring as the economy reopened and consumers came back to stores, restaurants, and other businesses that had been shuttered in March and April. Despite the gains, employment in July was lower than its February level by 12.9 million, or 8.4 percent
The largest employment increases in July occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, retail trade, professional and business services, other services, and health care, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly report on the employment situation in the U.S.
The leisure and hospitality sector added 592,000 jobs in July, accounting for about one-third of the gain in total nonfarm employment in July. Restaurants and bars
added 502,000 employees, following gains of 2.9 million in May and June combined. This was the hardest hit area during the pandemic lockdowns when many businesses were forced to shut their doors or saw demand plummet.
Manufacturing had a strong month, in large part because of the auto sector. Employment increased by 26,000. A gain of 39,000 in motor vehicles and parts was partially offset by losses in fabricated metal products, machinery, and computer and electronic products. Although manufacturing has added 623,000 jobs over the past 3 months, employment is 740,000 lower than in February, highlighting that the recovery has brought us less than halfway back to the pandemic starting point.
In a surprise, government employment rose by 301,000 in July. Typically, public-sector employment falls in July. Nonetheless, government jobs are still 1.1 million lower than the February level. It appears that some of the typical July declines happened earlier than usual this year due to the lockdowns.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_(weapon)
