Both payroll employment (-23,000) and unemployment rate (4.1%) change little in July

Bureau of Labor Statistics ^ | August 7, 2026 | Bureau of Labor Statistics

[buckalfa]

Both nonfarm payroll employment (-23,000) and the unemployment rate (4.1 percent) changed little in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment declined in local government education and retail trade. Employment continued to trend up in health care.

This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: johs; productivity; wages

[buckalfa]

23K job loss plus May and June revised down 103K. Productivity and wages up. Despite record investments plus record profits and markets,this is not good news as it relates to elections and the midterms.

[MomentsofSanity]

Time will tell if it’s just dismissed as fake like everything other time or treated as it should be. Can’t keep firing people if the numbers aren’t good.

Sadly I suspect head in the sand will be the result as usual.

[marktwain]

I remember when an unemployment rate of 4.1% was considered wonderful.

Any thing less than 5% was considered full employment.

[VanShuyten]

The drop in unemployment was attributed to people leaving the workforce. That’s mostly due to retirement and dropouts, but also fewer illegals.

[HamiltonJay]

As someone who dealt with the Biden Economy, and went nearly 2 years without work (Thank GOD Trump won)... I find myself looking again and the difference between now and then has been night and day.

I would be lucky to get an interview a quarter if that under Biden... have 3 lined up next week.

I am not going to say thing are awesome, but compared to 2023/24.. its a 1000 times better now.

[volare737]

Same here, showing my age here, I know—but when I was in school in the 70’s, in my economics classes, 5% unemployment was considered full employment.

[drjimmy]

Economists had also expected employers to add 83,000 jobs, so instead losing 23,000 is a big negative swing.

[millenial4freedom]

the report wasn't the best, but I have a feeling this one was kind of a fluke, as bonds are barely rallying.

Survey response rates for the BLS can be volatile and poor, and some of the other labor data from other sources has been decent (but not hot).

[volare737]

This report was not a negative one.

**Total nonfarm jobs: –23,000
**Government employment: –53,000 jobs
**Private-sector employment: +30,000

Private sector jobs up, net 7,000. Losing government jobs is a good thing.

[Capn Hayek]

Apples and oranges though —

The monthly BLS numbers are W-2 based. However, the survey *rate* incorporates 1099 employees (including ‘gig’ workers).

The latter is a *very* tough thing to calculate - and nobody thinks BLS it right (but nobody has a good solution for how TO do it right).

It’s a longterm trend though - W-2 payrolls have stagnated while contract/gig/1099s have skyrocketed.

[HYPOCRACY]

Media spinning creation of 30k private sector jobs and elimination of 53k government jobs as a bad sign. So pathetic. Also a lot of job losses were due to the end of the world cup, in hospitality.

[dpetty121263]

Fake numbers as the Trump economy is in much worse shape than reported.

[CFW]

Since Trump took office, 1.3 Million foreign-born workers (legal and illegal) have lost a job. Meanwhile, 1.7 Million native-born Americans have gained a job.

A sharp reversal of the last few years.

[zeestephen]

Hard Left news organizations have a tough time trying to spin this story in their political favor.

The unemployment rate went DOWN -0.1%.

Unless you think the USA population, and the number of USA job seekers, should continuously increase, Unemployment Down is good news!

[Skylab]

The labor participation rate fell to the lowest level in 5 years. Meaning people are dropping out of the economy, and the unemployment rate goes down automatically as they are no longer counted as unemployed. It’s a bad sign.

I think it’s time to fire the current head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and install someone who knows what the numbers should be.

[Wayne07]

“I think it’s time to fire the current head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and install someone who knows what the numbers should be.”

Again? When you do it yearly, the manipulation becomes a little too obvious.