Washington sources reported that the Labor Department said the United States' headline unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% in July, a month in which non-farm payrolls in the world's largest economy rose by 157,000. As per report the US economy remains close to full employment even though the number of jobs added last month was below the 195,000 forecast by economists.
Meanwhile US employment has risen for 94 consecutive months, the longest jobs expansion streak on record and presently the unemployment rate has now dipped below 4% for the third time this year. Moreover the jobless rate unexpectedly climbed to 4% in June up from 3.8% in May, the lowest level since 2000 mainly because more people were actively looking for work. Furthermore the average hourly wages for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose in July by $0.07 to $27.05 and average hourly earnings climbed 2.7% relative to July 2017, and economists expect labor costs to keep rising.
Further the US labor force participation rate (the share of the
population 16 years and older either working or seeking work), which peaked at
67.1% in 2000, remained unchanged from the previous month at 62.9%. US Labor
Secretary Alexander Acosta said in a statement on the July jobs report "The
unemployment rate edged down to 3.9% and this is only the eighth time that the
monthly unemployment rate has fallen below 4.0% since 1970, and three of those
months happened under President (Donald) Trump in 2018".
