The US economy added 114,000 jobs in July, far less than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 175,000. The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.3% compared to the June rate of 4.1%. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% from June and 3.6% from a year ago, both of which were less than expected.
Morning Brief anchors Seana Smith and Brad Smith report the breaking data in the video above.
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This post was written by Stephanie Mikulich.
Okay. Taking a look at this report much weaker than expected. Jobs coming in at 114,000. Again, just to remind you, the estimate on the street was for 175,000 jobs added. So much lower to what the street had been forecasting. Unemployment rate actually ticking higher to 4.3%. A jump of two tenths of a percent on a month-over-month basis. Digging down into some of the average hourly earnings here, figures that we're seeing on a month-over-month basis, it increased by two tenths of a percent. That was a bit lower than what we saw the previous month. On a year over year basis, average hourly earnings was up 3.6%. But again, showing material softness within the labor market. That, of course, has been a worry here for the markets, and you can see by the market's reaction to this print. And we really saw a shift, I think, in the sentiment yesterday where we started to see the markets pricing in bad news for the economy as bad news for the market. We saw that in the heels of the manufacturing print yesterday. Now we're seeing that on the heels of this unemployment print here today. So I think the question is whether or not the Fed has maybe waited a bit too long to cut rates, and of course, that has been the debate now for several weeks.
Yeah, for those wondering at home, also an interesting note within this employment situation acknowledging Hurricane Barrel. They said, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that Hurricane Barrel had no discernible effect on the national employment and unemployment data for July. You'll remember that this is the hurricane that made landfall on the central coast of Texas on July 8th, 2024, during the reference periods for both the household and establishment surveys here. The response rates for the two surveys were within the normal ranges they do note here. So that's added notes atypical from what we typically see, or from what we normally get in this update, but no doubt apt for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to include that there. But one of the huge things that I'm keeping tabs on as well, sectors here. Employment continued to trend up in healthcare, construction, and in transportation and warehousing, while information actually lost jobs during this most recent reading as well here, as we've been tracking the US Futures on your screen right now.
