Job Seeker Blog - Spark Hire

July jobs report beats expectations

The July jobs report was surprisingly strong beating analyst expectations.

  • 117,000 new jobs were created in July. Only 85,000 were expected.
  • The unemployment rate fell to 9.1% from 9.2%
  • Average hourly earnings were up 0.4% vs. 0.2% last month

Despite these numbers Goldman’s top economist Jan Hatzius is more concerned about the unemployment rate rather than the number of new jobs created. He explains:

“During the post-WWII period, whenever the 3m average of the unrounded unemployment rate has increased by more than 35bps from a trough, the economy has either entered recession already, or will within 6 months. Currently, the three-month average rate is 9.07%, up from a recent trough of 8.90% in April. The unemployment rate would need to increase to 9.3% in July and stay there in August to trigger the 35bp threshold.”

SOURCE: Business Insider

Spark Hire Team

Add comment