The US non-farm payroll figures, which are effectively a measure of how many jobs were added to the US economy last month and are likely the single most closely followed piece of economic data in financial markets, were substantially lower than predicted in July.
Approximately 114,000 jobs were generated in the US economy this month. This was much fewer than Wall Street’s expectations of 175,000 jobs generated.
It was the weakest result since December of last year and the second weakest since March 2020, when the pandemic was just taking underway.
The June figure was also lowered lower, from a previously healthy-looking 206,000 to 179,000. When these numbers are combined with the number of people joining the labor force, the unemployment rate in the United States increased to 4.3% during July.
That was worse than the 4.1% forecast by Wall Street. And they have fueled fears that the world’s largest economy is about to enter a recession.
