The U.S. created 255,000 net new jobs in July 2016, far in excess of the 167,000 to 185,000 consensus numbers from economists. Year-over-year job growth is now 1.72 percent. Average hourly earnings rose 8 cents to $25.69, up from $25.03 a year ago, a gain of 2.63 percent. May 2016 new job numbers were revised upward to 24,000 from 11,000 and June 2016 numbers up from 287,000 to 292,000. The 255,000 net new jobs in July 2016, however, was short of the 277,000 created a year ago. The U.S. added 2.447 million net new jobs (preliminary) in the prior 12 months.
The following graph shows net job growth for each month last year and the year-to-date for 2016.
The total number of jobs (millions) created in the trailing 12-months are illustrated in the following graph.
Other items in the July 2016 jobs report:
- July Unemployment Rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent from a month earlier. The count of unemployed slipped by 13,000 to 7.77 million
- The Number of Persons Unemployed for Less Than 5 Weeks dropped by 258,000 to 2.16 million
- Long-Term Unemployed (jobless for 27 or more weeks), make up one-in-four of the unemployed (26.6 percent), rose by 41,000 and now totals 2.02 million
- Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate is now 62.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 62.6 percent a year ago
- Employment-Population Ratio is now 59.7 percent versus 59.3 percent a year ago – again slightly improved for the second consecutive month
- Number of Persons Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons (also known as involuntary part-time workers) are individuals desiring full-time employment but either had their hours cut back or cannot find a full-time job), now totals 5.94 million, down from 6.30 million a year ago
- Marginally Attached to the Labor Force (not currently counted in the labor force, want and are available for work and had looked for a job in the prior 12 months) dropped 23,000 in the past year to 1.950 million. Within that group, 591,000 were classified as Discouraged Workers – persons not currently looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available for them. Discouraged Workers fell by 77,000 in the past 12 months
- Professional and Business Services added 70,000 jobs last month and are up 550,000 in the past 12 months
- Leisure and Hospitality added 45,000 jobs in July and has grown by 421,000 in the prior 12 months equating to a 2.78 percent growth rate
- Health Care and Social Assistance employment grew by 48,800 in the month but is flat year-over-year
- Government (federal, local and state) added 38,000 jobs in July 2016, up from 33,000 new jobs in June and 25,000 in May. In the past 12 months this sector added 154,000 jobs at an annualized growth rate of 0.7 percent
- Retail Trade added just 14,700 jobs in July
- Mining (includes oil and gas exploration and production) lost another 7,000 in the month, now down 222,000 from the peak in September 2014. The sector has now lost one-out-of every four jobs since the peak, -24.6 percent
To read the entire U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics July 2016 Jobs Report click http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
From an economic perspective, this report is pretty much just tepidly warm. In comparison, the U.S. added 3.45 million net new jobs in the 12 months ending January 1998.
Ted