Thursday, August 9, 2012

US jobs growth beat forecasts


Employment in the US rose by more than anticipated in the month of July, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday, although the report also showed a surprising uptick by the unemployment rate.
The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment increased by 163,000 jobs in July following a negatively revised increase of 64,000 jobs in June.
Economists expected employment to increase by about 100,000 jobs compared with the addition of 80,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The stronger than expected growth reflected a continued increase in jobs in the private sector, which added 172,000 jobs in July following an increase of 73,000 jobs in June.
Manufacturing employment saw an increase of 25,000 jobs, while employment in the professional and business services and the education and health services sectors increased by 49,000 jobs and 38,000 jobs, respectively.
However, the report said government employment fell by 9,000 jobs in July, extending a recent downward trend.
Even with job growth for the month, the jobless rate crept up to 8.3% in July from 8.2% in June. The increase surprised economists, who had expected the unemployment to come in unchanged.
The unexpected increase by the unemployment rate came as the more volatile household survey reported the number of employed persons fell by 195,000 in July, exceeding the decrease in the size of the labor force.
The report showed that average hourly earnings edged up by $0.02 to $23.52 in July – compared to the same month a year ago, average hourly earnings are up by 1.7%.

source: BENCHMARK

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