July Jobs Report: US Added 943,000, Beating Expectations

U.S. jobs rose by 943,000 in July, above the consensus estimate for a gain of 845,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. 

The unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, a post-pandemic low, from 5.9% in June.

The government also revised the June jobs growth figure to 983,000, up from the initially reported 850,000 jobs. 

On average, since January 2021 the U.S. has added 540,000 jobs per month and the employment trend has been strengthening but is still somewhat unpredictable, making it difficult for economists to use any single month’s data to extrapolate what the future might look like. 

The positive July report could encourage the Federal Reserve to taper its $120-billion-a-month of ongoing asset purchases – a form of monetary stimulus – more quickly, with a debate over the pace currently ongoing within the central bank.

Assuming the tapering starts sooner, bitcoiners would no longer be able to count on the Fed bringing more liquidity to the markets through quantitative easing and giving investors the liquidity to invest more in riskier assets.

The labor force participation rate – the percentage of the American population that is either working or actively looking for work – ticked up slightly to 61.7% from 61.6% in June.

The employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of people employed against the total working-age population, changed little month to month at 58.4% from 58% in June.