Credence Independent Advisors News: 209,000 jobs added by US economy in July

July witnessed an addition of 209,000 jobs by US, showing that the US is on its course of economic recovery.

The manufacturing and professional business services sector witnessed the biggest job gains.

There has also been a slight increase in the US labour market, which will encourage workers who have given up job hunt to enter the job market once again.

According to the Commerce Department, during the period April to June, the US economy grew by a better than expected 4 percent.

However, the latest data from the Bureau of Labour Statistic has shown that the unemployment rate has slightly increased to 6.2 percent.

The job data for May and June was also revised upwards to show that the US economy added 15,000 more jobs for May and June.

Variations along the way:

Even though some economists had been expecting higher figures, the US stock markets were below the less than expected gains.

Following steep losses the day before, the Dow Jones 100 Index fell down by almost 80 points.

Most analysts were of the view that there was nothing negative about the report. Jefferies, the US investment bank, in a note to clients stated; “The downward trend [in the unemployment rate] remains intact, but there will be bumps along the way to normalcy.”

One of the possible reasons for the increase in the unemployment rate could be the fact that July is often one of the weaker months in terms of job growth. Nonetheless, the job figures for July are indeed encouraging, because the US economy just needs to add at least 150,000 jobs each month in order to keep up with the population growth. Furthermore, July is the sixth month in a row when the US economy has added more than 200,000 jobs.

This shows that the US is indeed on its course of economic recovery.

The need to still push on:

Janet Yellen, the US Federal Reserve chair, recently expressed that even though employment data is better than the one witnessed after the 2008-2009 recession. However, there are still some issues and challenges remaining. For instance, the wage growth still remains flat. Similarly, the number of long-term unemployed (people who are out of work for longer than six months) is also the same at 3.2 million (one-third of those looking for work).

In a recent interview with the New Yorker magazine, Janet said “Imagine I’ve got my hands on your shoulders and I’m pushing you.”

“In the aftermath of the financial crisis, I was pushing you so hard; you couldn’t get to where you wanted to go. Now that the economy is recovering I’m pushing you a little less hard, so you’re able to make some forward movement. But I’m still pushing you.”

A recent job fair in Boston, Massachusetts witnessed this sort of tension, where only a handful of employers had to deal with an overwhelmingly huge number of resumes.

According to an unemployed job seeker, Dwayne Burgess; “It is very tough out there – employers now have a ton of people to search through and they’re looking for that perfect person and you really have to be competitive with that next person in front of you.”