The unemployment rate stayed the same at 5.3%, which is its lowest point since April 2008.
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Industries seeing major jobs gains included retail trade, up 36,000; health care, which added 28,000 jobs; and professional and technical services, which added 27,000 positions.
The short-term unemployment rate slipped to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent in June, while the jobless rate for the long-term unemployed held steady at 1.4 percent.
Dennis de Jong, managing director at UFX.com, said the jobs market has improved, giving the Federal Reserve reason to lift interest rates for the first time in nine years.
The Fed has held the benchmark federal funds rate near zero since late 2008 in a bid to support the economy’s recovery from the Great Recession, and has said it would move rates higher carefully so as not to derail growth. The labor force expanded slightly, and youth unemployment dropped.
While speaking before Congress, Yellen said that she was concerned with rising inequality and the impact it had on African Americans and their unemployment, but that there was little she could do about it.
Though the rate of hiring was slower than July last year, it remains well in excess of the rate required to keep up with population growth.
Given that evidence, a reasonable person might say the economy is strong enough to allow interest rates to rise a bit in September.
“This was an encouraging figure, one that is closer to the monthly average of last year when activity in the sector was growing more robustly”, said Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers. A broader underemployment rate, which includes both groups, stood at 10.4 percent in July, still well above its prerecession level.
Silver futures for September delivery added 1 percent to $14.821 an ounce, the biggest gain in four weeks. More jobs were also added in construction. Yet to the Federal Reserve Bank, there may be some encouraging numbers, enough for them to possibly pull the lever and raise interest rates in the coming months.
“The contours of this report are exactly what they’d want to see ahead of liftoff”, said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
The metal reached a five-year low of $1,073.70 on July 24 as the outlook for tighter monetary policy prompted investors to favor assets with better yield prospects.
In addition, a number of retailers, including Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, Target and TJX Cos have increased pay for hourly workers.
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However, for the hawks among us, this was an ideal jobs report and puts us in a place where the only thing standing between now and a rate hike on 18 September is one more US jobs report in a month’s time. Durable goods producers lost 8,000 jobs, the fourth straight decline amid a stronger dollar that’s challenging exporters.
