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US Economy adds 943,000 Jobs in better-than-expected jobs report

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 943,000 in July, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage point to 5.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in local government education, and in professional and business services.

The unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage point to 5.4 percent in July, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 782,000 to 8.7 million. These measures are down
considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession. However, they remain well above their levels prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (3.5
percent and 5.7 million, respectively, in February 2020). (See table A-1. See the box note at the end of this news release for more information about how the household survey and its
measures were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates declined in July for adult men (5.4 percent), adult women (5.0 percent), Whites (4.8 percent), Blacks (8.2 percent), and
Hispanics (6.6 percent). The jobless rates for teenagers (9.6 percent) and Asians (5.3 percent) showed little change over the month. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of persons on temporary layoff fell by 572,000 to 1.2 million in July. This measure is down considerably from the high of 18.0 million in April
2020 but is 489,000 above the February 2020 level. The number of permanent job losers declined by 257,000 to 2.9 million in July but is 1.6 million higher than in February
2020. (See table A-11.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) decreased by 560,000 in July to 3.4 million but is 2.3 million higher than in February 2020. These
long-term unemployed accounted for 39.3 percent of the total unemployed in July. The number of persons jobless less than 5 weeks increased by 276,000 to 2.3 million.

The labor force participation rate was little changed at 61.7 percent in July and has remained within a narrow range of 61.4 percent to 61.7 percent since June 2020. The
participation rate is 1.6 percentage points lower than in February 2020. The employment- population ratio increased by 0.4 percentage point to 58.4 percent in July and is up by
1.0 percentage point since December 2020. However, this measure is 2.7 percentage points below its February 2020 level.

Household Survey Supplemental Data ,in July, 13.2 percent of employed persons teleworked because of the coronavirus pandemic, down from 14.4 percent in the prior month. These data refer to employed persons who
teleworked or worked at home for pay at some point in the last 4 weeks specifically because of the pandemic.

In July, 5.2 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic–that is, they did not work at all
or worked fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the pandemic. This measure is down from 6.2 million in June. Among those who reported in July that they were
unable to work because of pandemic-related closures or lost business, 9.1 percent received at least some pay from their employer for the hours not worked, little changed
from the previous month.

9 thoughts on “US Economy adds 943,000 Jobs in better-than-expected jobs report

  1. How many jobs added in NJ? Something tells me these numbers are driven by red states where extra unemployment benefits were dropped.

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  2. Unemployment running out. Mad rush to get a job.
    “Why look for a job now, I get 1,200.00 a week in unemployment benefits”

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  3. Is it exhausting, always searching for the negative in any story?

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  4. Literally no one is getting 1200 a week. That’s over 60,000 a year, twice the median American income. Meaning half of all Americans make less than that half that.

    But hey, spout off whatever numbers you feel like, if it makes you feel oh so smart and superior.

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  5. If you think Sleepy Joe had anything to do with this you are sadly mistaken.

  6. NJ Maximum Unemployment Benefit $731.00 per week.
    Throw in $600.00 federal, which is now only $300.00 and you may start to understand why people are not inclined to take a job which nets them much less.

  7. You can also throw in money being made off the books while collecting all these various freebies. It’s no wonder companies are struggling to find workers.

  8. …but I heard some “expert” today on Bloomberg stating that we are are “near full employment”.

    His justification was that:
    1) Employers have numerous openings and not that many applicants
    2) Workers are leaving jobs since they are “confident in their ability to quickly get another job”

    Of course he mentioned in passing and dismissed the “over 2 million people who are choosing not to work due to the generous unemployment and COVID benefits” (If he admitted to 2 million, you KNOW the number must be at least TWICE that)

    But he was from Yale, so he has to be right since he must be really, really smart… not like us dopes.

  9. I guess at Yale they didn’t teach anything about the labor force participation rate.

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