Heading into today’s payrolls report, there was some “whisper” expectation that the July print would be a blowout due to a spike in census hiring, however that did not happen and instead the BLS reported that last month 164K jobs were added, right on top of the 165K expected.
The not so pleasant news: substantial downward revisions, to wit: the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 10,000 from +72,000 to +62,000, and the change for June was revised down by 31,000 from +224,000 to +193,000. With these revisions, employment gains in May and June combined were 41,000 less than previously reported.
Offsetting the slightly weaker headline payrolls – largely due to downward revisions – was the average hourly earnings which came in hotter than expected, as the monthly increase came in at 0.3%, above the 0.2% expected, while the annual increase of 3.3% was also above the 3.2% expected, and once again approaching the cycle highs.
Meanwhile, the far less notable unemployment rate was unchanged from last month, at 3.7%, just above the 3.6% expected. Of note: hispanic unemployment rose modestly to 4.5% if still near all time lows.
Developing
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/339G7MD Tyler Durden