The U.S. economy added a strong number of jobs in July, buoyed by the hiring of which new workers have been eager to onboard because of a persistent labor shortage.
The Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday that 528,000 jobs were added in July, which is well above the 250,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate was down to 3.5%, the lowest level since the beginning of the year.
The U.S. has replaced all jobs lost during the Pandemic.
Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, said that the job market is moving forward despite a rising tide of recession fears.
The labor market remains a pillar of strength, holding up the economy even though the broader economy shows signs of slowing. As tighter monetary policy bites, the labor market is likely to slow down in the coming months. The labor market is red hot and will hopefully assuade recession fears. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest increase in July, with 96,000 jobs added, despite the fact that job gains were broad based last month. Restaurants and bars saw an increase of 74,100, while arts, entertainment and other recreation-based industries added 21,600 new jobs.
Employment in the industry is 7.1% less than where it was in February 2020.
In May, payrolls went up by 89,000, with the second-largest job growth coming from professional and business services. The increases were widespread across the industry. Architecture and engineering services rose by 12,500, management and technical consulting services increased 11,800 and scientific research and development services increased by 9,600.
Employment in the industry is almost 1 million more than it was in February 2020.
The health care and social assistance sector created more jobs in May, up 96,600. Hospitals hired 12,900 new employees, while individual and family services saw payrolls grow by 18,800. The offices of physicians, dentists, and other health care practitioners were up 47,300.
Transportation and warehousing saw a surge in hiring last month, onboarding 20,900 new employees. Transit and ground passenger transportation increased by 4,500.
The government hired a number of new employees last month, with payrolls increasing by about 57,000. Nearly half of the gains came from increases in local government education 27,400 Employment in other industries, including construction 32,000 manufacturing 30,000 retail trade 21,600 and wholesale trade 10,500, also increased last month.