Unemployment Rate Reaches Lowest Level Of Pandemic: What You Need To Know

Employment rose by almost 950,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dropped by 0.5%, according to Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

That leaves the unemployment rate at 5.4%, the lowest it's been since the pandemic began in America in March 2020.

The leisure and hospitality sector led the way with 380,000 jobs added, followed by local government education (221,000 jobs added).

Transportation and warehousing added 50,000 jobs, meaning the industry has recovered almost 93% of jobs it lost since February 2020.

Click here to listen to the Reactions To The Jobs Number on the PreMarket Podcast.

Why It Matters: When the economy is making more hires, more people have the ability to spend, thus churning the entire ecosystem more effectively. This is particularly true for those who typically have less money and assets on average.

It doesn’t hurt that the stock market has responded positively, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both up.

On Friday morning, many economists responded positively to the economic number. 

“The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July, that means that nearly three quarters of the jobs lost at the start of the pandemic have been recouped,” wrote Odeta Kushi, chief economist at First American. 

“At this monthly pace, we would return to pre-COVID employment peak by February 2022.”

Economist and Harvard professor Jason Furman was equally ecstatic.

“I have yet to find a blemish in this jobs report,” he wrote. “I've never before seen such a wonderful set of economic data,” including declines in unemployment rate (especially for Black and Latino workers) and nominal wage gains.

What Else: While many workers report enjoying the slightly new phenomenon, the number of people working remotely dropped slightly for another month, from 14.4% to 13.2%.

Photo: Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernandez via Unsplash.