According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the United States economy produced 209,000 jobs in July. This meant that the unemployment rate was down to 4.3 percent in July – beating all expectations from economists.
Jed Kolko, chief economist for job search engine Indeed said, "This was a banner jobs report. Job growth in the past three months is ahead of the 2016 pace and way ahead of what's needed to keep up with population growth. Working-age adults are now more likely to be employed than at any time since the recession."
Since a peak of 10% in 2009, the unemployment rate has been steadily falling. In July, the unemployment rates were 4% for adult men and women, 13.2% for teenagers 3.8% for Asians, 7.4% for blacks and 3.8% for whites – all showing little or no change, However, the unemployment rate for Hispanics was up to 5.1% from 4.8%. Long term unemployed rose slightly to 1.8 million – 25.9% of the total unemployed.
According to the BLS, some unemployed people – although out of work and available for work – were not actively seeking a job as they believe there are none available for them. Others did not seek work due to family responsibilities.
Jed Kolko stated, "Today's low unemployment rate masks some reasons for concern. Today's unemployed are more than twice as likely to be out of work for more than six months as the unemployed in April 2001. They're also more likely to be underemployed, as measured by the broader U-6 unemployment rate. Finally, a larger share of prime-working-age adults is not employed today versus April 2001 because they're out of the labor force.”
President Trump has tweeted encouragement to those who have given up looking for a job altogether, to start trying again to join the labor force. He promised that he will continue to roll back "stifling regulations" that hurt jobs.
Cathy Barrera - the chief economic adviser for the online jobs platform ZipRecruiter – had been worried about younger workers falling behind since the recovery from the recession. However, she stated, "……. we're starting to see a trend for that particular group with modest rises in labor force participation and downward ticks in unemployment. We're seeing more jobs that don't require a college degree get posted. As more jobs become available for them, we could see their labor force participation return to pre-recession levels."
In July, food services gained 53,000 jobs; professional and business services gained 49,000 jobs and health care gained 39,000 jobs. Employment in other major industries, including construction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; financial activities and government showed little change over the month.
Jed Kolko pointed out that "The fastest job growth in July was in lower-wage industries. That's helping the least-educated Americans get back to work. The recovery is now strong and long enough to lift many of the people hurt most by the recession—except in manufacturing, which continues to lag overall jobs growth."
Wage growth remains sluggish - with average hourly earnings for all private-sector workers rising by 9 cents in July to $26.36. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 65 cents, or 2.5 percent.
Cathy Barrera observed, "While we're still mystified by the muted wage growth, wages among the lower 25th percentile is growing a lot faster than those who are at the top 75th percentile. This is one indication that the job market for younger workers and/or workers without college degrees may be heating up, which is great news because this is the group that has not seen as full a recovery as everyone else."
