US adds 114K jobs in July, jobless rate rises to 4.3 percent
The U.S. added 114,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
Economists expected the U.S. to add 175,000 jobs and keep the jobless rate steady at 4.1 percent, according to consensus estimates.
The July jobs report comes two days after Federal Reserve officials hinted that they could begin cutting interest rates as soon as September. As both inflation and the U.S. job market keep cooling off, the Fed is aiming to bring rates down quickly enough to avoid a deeper slowdown, but slowly enough to keep prices under control.
An interest rate cut could give a slight boost to a U.S. economy that has powered through recession fears and high inflation for years after the pandemic.
Despite widespread fears of a recession, the U.S. economy has held strong throughout the Biden adminstration and appears to be in solid shape heading into the election.
But Biden had struggled to highlight the strength of the recovery as Americans dealt with inflation, which has fallen from four-decades highs to within the Fed's target.
Vice President Harris, who is poised to be the Democratic nominee against former President Trump, will face her own challenge threading the needle with an economic message.
A September rate cut could ease some pressure on the economy and the stagnant housing market, which has swamped would-be buyers with high prices and steeper borrowing costs.
Trump, however, would likely take exception to anytning that could turn around feelings about the economy ahead of his battle with Harris.
“It’s something that they know they shouldn’t be doing,” Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview last month.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, a Republican first appointed to the role by Trump, faced heavy pressure from the former president throughout his tenure. Trump repeatedly pressured Powell into cutting interest rates to give the U.S. more leverage in trade talks, which Powell refused to do.
Powell has told reporters that the Fed's rate-setting decisions are not and will not be influenced by the upcoming election.
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