July Jobs Report -- Worse than Expected
Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 162,000 in July, much lower than the consensus estimate of 183,000.
Revisions trend was also negative, with May job gains revised down from 195,000 to 176,000 and June number revised down from 195,000 to 188,000.
The positive part of the report was the unemployment rate, which fell to 7.4%, lowest since December 2008. This is better than the consensus estimate of 7.5%. The broadest measure of unemployment U-6 came in at 14%, down from 14.3% in June.
Private sector accounted for majority of the job gains with most of the gains coming from retail, food services, the securities industry and wholesale trade.
Some highlights from the report:
Retail trade added 47,000 jobs
The leisure and hospitality sector jobs increased by 38,000
Professional and business services jobs were up by 36,000
Manufacturing added 6,000 jobs
Government employment was almost unchanged
Average hourly earnings fell by 2 cents to $23.98, after a 10 cent increase in June
Average workweek fell 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours
Labor force participation rate was 63.4% in July, slightly down from 63.5% in June
What is your takeaway from this report? Does the report mean that ‘tapering’ is not coming anytime soon now?
Read the analyst report on SPY
Read the analyst report on GLD
Read the analyst report on BOND
More From Zacks.com
