[SPEAKER_01]: This is a news.com newsflash. [SPEAKER_00]: The US labor market showed fresh signs of slowing in July, adding fewer jobs than expected in posting the highest unemployment rates since twenty twenty one. [SPEAKER_00]: News.com has learned that the labor department recently reported that the economy added seventy three thousand jobs in July, well below the one hundred six thousand that economists had forecasted.
[SPEAKER_00]: The unemployment rate rose to four point two percent, up from four point one percent in June. [SPEAKER_00]: The jobless rate has hovered between four percent and four point two percent since May, twenty twenty four, but July's figure represents the upper end of that range. [SPEAKER_00]: Furthermore, labor force participation continued to decline, falling to sixty two point two percent in July from sixty two point three percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The employment population ratio also ticked down. [SPEAKER_00]: Adding to concerns, revisions to earlier data painted a weaker picture of hiring the spring. [SPEAKER_00]: June's job growth, originally reported at one hundred forty-seven thousand, was cut to fourteen thousand. [SPEAKER_00]: May's tally was revised from one hundred forty-four thousand to nineteen thousand. [SPEAKER_00]: Despite softer job creation, wages continue to rise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Average hourly earnings rose to thirty-six dollars and forty-four cents in July, up from thirty-five dollars in seven cents a year earlier, a three point nine percent increase. [SPEAKER_00]: Month over month, wages grew by zero point three percent compared to a zero point two percent rise in June. [SPEAKER_00]: Year over year earnings growth has hovered between three point eight percent and three point nine percent since January.
[SPEAKER_00]: Laura Ulrich, the director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Highland Lab, said in a statement that the job market continues to be in a low higher, low fire environment, especially in traditionally white color fields. [SPEAKER_00]: The labor market continues to move at a gradual pace without major swings. [SPEAKER_00]: Recently released figures show that applications for unemployment benefits, a gauge of layoffs, remain low.
[SPEAKER_00]: Earlier reports pointed to fewer available job openings in June, while the quit rate held steady at two percent for the third consecutive month. [SPEAKER_00]: A July survey from the conference board found more people saying jobs are abundant, but also more respondents reporting difficulty securing more. [SPEAKER_00]: Some job seekers said in a statement to business insider that they have expanded the types of physicians they are applying for in an effort to improve their chances.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you see is, by many many statistics, the labor market is kind of still in balance. [SPEAKER_00]: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference. [SPEAKER_00]: Nearly all of July's job gains came from one sector, health care and social assistance. [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Goldwine of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted in a post on X that all seventy three thousand new jobs in July were in healthcare and social services.
[SPEAKER_00]: Healthcare employment alone rose by fifty five thousand four hundred from June to July highlighting the sector's resilience. [SPEAKER_00]: Healthcare steadiness stands in contrast to the rest of the job market, which has been more volatile over the last few years, and in particular has been very soft over the last few months. [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel Jow, chief economist at Glassdoor, set in a statement. [SPEAKER_00]: By contrast, several other industries lost ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: Professional and business services, a traditionally white collar field, saw declines, as did manufacturing. [SPEAKER_00]: Employment in the federal government also dropped by twelve thousand. [SPEAKER_01]: Knowledge, Knowledge, Unfilter.