Employers added jobs at the best pace in nearly a year in July and the unemployment rate fell sharply, signs of a strong labor market ahead of the Delta variant threat.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 943,000 in July, from June’s upwardly revised gain of 938,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The July jobs increase was the largest since August 2020.
The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of households, fell to 5.4% in July from 5.9% in June. The number of Americans working or seeking work last month rose, as did average hourly wages.
The surveys for the jobs report were conducted in the middle of the month. That was before some local governments reimposed mask mandates and other restrictions, and before many employers announced they would require employees to wear masks, be vaccinated or get regularly tested. Companies have also delayed return-to-office plans, including announcements by Amazon.com Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
“The jobs recovery is continuing, but it’s different in character to any we’ve seen before,” said Nela Richardson, economist at human-resources software firm Automatic Data Processing Inc. “I had been looking at September as a point when we could gain momentum—with schools back in session and vaccines widely available. But with the Delta variant, we need to rethink that.”
