Another economic area of the United States approached normality last month, out of many months of the COVID-19 shaqow.
Figures released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department showed hiring rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over COVID-19’s delta variant and as companies struggled with a tight labor supply.
Non-Farm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payroll increase was the best since August 2020.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 845,000 new jobs and a headline unemployment rate of 5.7%. However, estimates were diverse amid conflicting headwinds and tailwinds and an uncertain path ahead for the economy.
The drop in the headline unemployment rate looked even stronger considering that the labor force participation rate ticked up to 61.7%, tied for the highest level since the pandemic hit in March 2020. A separate calculation that includes discouraged workers and those holding jobs part-time for economic reasons fell even further, to 9.2% from 9.8% in June.