U.S. Employment Falls in July, Countering Economists’ Expectations

The U.S. labor market continued to lose momentum in July, signaling a slower pace of economic growth. The U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July, according to the latest data release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, revisions cut 103,000 jobs from May and June’s estimates. Despite seasonal adjustments applied to the data, there appears to be some seasonality in the industries reporting job losses this month. The Trade/Transportation/Utilities loss of 4,000 jobs included a drop of 19,400 jobs in retail, particularly warehouse clubs. The Government sector’s 53,000 job loss was entirely in local government education (teachers). The 40,000 jobs lost in Leisure/Hospitality were spread across both arts, entertainment and recreation and accommodation and food services. The Information industry gained 11,000 jobs in July as seasonal hiring jumped in the motion picture and sound recording subsector. Financial Activities’ 14,000 job loss was in the finance and insurance sector (spread between credit intermediation and insurance carriers), while losses also occurred in the Mining/Logging industry. However, the Construction, Professional/Business Services and Education/Health Services industries each had solid gains for the month. Surprisingly, the U3 seasonally adjusted headline unemployment rate (from the survey of households) registered at 4.1% in July, a slight improvement from June.

This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.