The economy added 255,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 180,000 jobs to be added.
July’s job growth was driven by professional and business services (70,000), health care (43,000), finance (18,000), leisure and hospitality (45,000), and food and drinking places (21,000). Public sector employment also increased by 38,000 jobs.
The two previous months were also revised upward, with 18,000 more jobs than previously reported. May was revised from a paltry 11,000 up to 24,000, while June’s blockbuster number of 287,000 went up to 292,000. Job gains have averaged 190,000 a month for the last three months. In total, the economy has added 1.3 million jobs since December of last year.
While the labor force participation rate remained unchanged in July, the number of people unemployed for a short period — less than five weeks — fell by 258,000.
Wages ticked upward in July with an 8-cent increase, bringing the growth in average hourly earnings over the last year to 2.6 percent.