The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its July jobs report Friday, showing 943,000 new jobs were added to the economy while unemployment decreased to 5.4 percent — beating projections that 870K jobs would be added and the unemployment rate would be 5.7 percent — as the economy claws its way back from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Payroll employment rises by 943,000 in July; unemployment rate declines to 5.4% https://t.co/1Y9cSWJUIB #JobsReport #BLSdata
— BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) August 6, 2021
Overall, the number of unemployed persons fell to 8.7 million, remaining "well above their levels" seen before COVID, even as the spread of the Delta variant led to new CDC guidance in late July reviving mask mandates and restrictions in a number of states and cities. The jobs report for August will show the full effect of any panic over Delta, but July's report shows Americans were ready to get back to work.
Outlining the economic sectors leading to the increase in payrolls, BLS explains that "two-thirds of the job gain was in food services and drinking places (+253,000)" while "employment also continued to increase in accommodation (+74,000) and in arts, entertainment, and recreation (+53,000)." However, as BLS notes, "despite recent growth, employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 1.7 million, or 10.3 percent, from its level in February 2020."
Leisure and Hospitality continues to be the driver of jobs gains. #JobsReport pic.twitter.com/TKN4AS3QeL
— Kathy Jones (@KathyJones) August 6, 2021
July's numbers show the American economy has added back more than 16 million jobs since April of 2020, still down 5.7 million jobs from the pre-pandemic level of February 2020.
As Townhall has covered through the recovery, Republican-led states edged ahead of their blue-state counterparts in June after cutting expanded unemployment that incentivized residents to remain out of the workforce.
In June a bunch of red states decided to end the federal $300 per week unemployment supplement to pay people to remain unemployed, and in July over 1 million people decided to go back to work. What a shocker!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) August 6, 2021
July also saw average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increase by 11 cents to $30.54. But thanks to inflation that's proving stubborn, Americans may actually feel less money as goods and services become more expensive under some of the worst inflation pressure since the 1990s. Late last month, the PCE Price Index — a gauge showing how much Americans are paying for goods and services — made its biggest jump since 1991.