Economy adds 164,000 jobs in July, unemployment rate 3.7%
The U.S. economy added slightly fewer jobs than expected in July, while the unemployment rate held a hair above a 50-year low.
Here were the main figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s July employment report, versus consensus expectations based on Bloomberg-compiled data:
Change in non-farm payrolls: +164,000 vs. +165,000 exp. and +193,000 in June
Friday’s “official” BLS jobs report comes as other releases on the domestic labor market have signaled ongoing strength in this area in the economy.
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ADP/Moody’s reported Wednesday that the economy added a better-than-expected 156,000 private payrolls in July, rising 44,000 from June’s upwardly revised level. And increases in jobless claims have been sanguine: The four-week moving average for weekly unemployment claims declined following the Department of Labor’s most recent release Thursday.