The report from the Labor Department beat expectations, coming in at 255,000 jobs added.
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The Dow Jones industrial average surged 142 points, or 0.8 percent, to 18,493.
The biggest gainers were Professional/Business Services at 70K, Leisure and Hospitality reached 45K and Health Services had 43K.
The report showed that while government employment increased significantly, adding 38,000 new jobs, employment in construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, and information showed little or no change over the month.
The new numbers released Friday were also accompanied by upward revisions for the months of May and June in a sign that the job market in the world’s largest economy is healthier than previously thought.
The job growth last month was down from an upwardly revised 292,000 in June.
She sees full employment as a benchmark for judging the U.S. economy is truly recovering from the 2007-09 recession and raises the probability of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. The Federal Reserve is looking for stronger pay increases and inflation before lifting interest rates again. Since the USA central bank hiked interest rates for the first time in a long time last December, it has sat on its hands as global economic growth sputtered.
Employment has been choppy this year, with paltry gains in May followed by a boom in June and July. While the numbers reflect the confidence of investors and employers, American jobs growth is still behind last year’s rate.
Staffing Industry Analysts’ Perspective: Many commentators have been anticipating the August jobs report to confirm the direction of the near-term trend following dismal June and strong July reports. Over the past year, average monthly job growth increased to 206K. Turning points are always harder to measure, and it seems like we’re always turning.
The problem is that outside the job market, things are looking gloomy. So far this year growth has averaged about 1%.
Economists were expecting a gain of about 180,000 jobs last month.
The manufacturing sector is expected to have added jobs in July for a second straight month. The company, which took in $533 million from its drug Keytruda this year, rose $4.32, or 7.5 percent, to $62.17.
The average workweek for production and non supervisory employees on private non farm payrolls also increased by a tenth of an hour to 33.7 hours.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers, because they could not find full-time work or had their hours cut back) was at 5.9 million in July. After Friday’s data, however, futures contracts were pricing in about a 46 per cent chance of a rate hike by year-end, up from about 34 per cent. Payroll processor ADP said businesses added 179,000 jobs in July.
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The Commerce Department said last month that economic activity had grown by a paltry 1.2 percent in the second quarter.
