Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 255,000 in July, down from June’s upwardly revised figure of 292,000. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent.
The majority of the increase came from professional and business services, which added 70,000 jobs in July, up from 53,000 in June. The sector has added 550,000 jobs over the past 12 months. Healthcare employment increased by 43,000 jobs, with most gains occurring in ambulatory services and hospitals. The financial activities sector rose by 18,000 in July, and has risen by 162,000 over the year.
Mining employment continued to fall as the industry shed 6,000 jobs during the month. Since peaking in September 2014, mining employment has fallen by 220,000 or 26 percent.
The civilian labor force participation rate was 62.8 percent, up 10 basis points from the previous month. The number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, was unchanged from the previous month and accounted for 26.6 percent of the unemployed. The number of discouraged workers, those who gave up looking for work, was 591,000, little changed from the previous year.
Average hourly earnings increased 8 cents to $25.69. Hourly earnings have risen by 2.6 percent over the past year.
Read the BLS release.
