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Friday, August 07, 2020

July Employment Report: 1.8 Million Jobs Added, 10.2% Unemployment Rate

by Calculated Risk on 8/07/2020 08:41:00 AM

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.8 million in July, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In July, notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, retail trade, professional and business services, other services, and health care.
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The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised up by 26,000, from +2,699,000 to +2,725,000, and the change for June was revised down by 9,000, from +4,800,000 to +4,791,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined was 17,000 higher than previously reported.
emphasis added
Year-over-year change employmentClick on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In July, the year-over-year change was -11.371 million jobs.

Total payrolls increased by 1.8 million in July.

Payrolls for May and June were revised up 17 thousand combined.

Employment Recessions, Scariest Job ChartThe second graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms.

The current employment recession is by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, and the worst in terms of the unemployment rate.

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

Employment Pop Ratio, participation and unemployment rates The Labor Force Participation Rate decreased to 61.4% in July. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.

The Employment-Population ratio increased to 55.1% (black line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

unemployment rateThe fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate decreased in July to 10.2%.

This was above consensus expectations of 1.58 million jobs added, and May and June were revised up by 18,000 combined.

I'll have much more later …