US added 215000 jobs in July

Average hourly earnings ticked up 5 cents in July to $24.99 and are now up 2.1 percent year over year.

July’s job growth roughly matched expectations, and the early reaction on Wall Street before trading opened was muted.

The July jobs report “without a doubt” shows the further improvement that the Fed was looking for in the labor market, said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management, paving the way for a September rate increase.

In addition, a number of retailers, including Walmart (WMT.N), the nation’s largest private employer, Target (TGT.N) and TJX Cos (TJX.N) have increased pay for hourly workers. The jobs report is extra important now because the Fed is close to raising its key interest rate for the first time in over nine years. The unemployment rate, however, remained at 5.3 percent – a strong figure, but exactly the same as the previous month’s share. Yellen has emphasized that she would like to see it as a fulcrum point for an increase, which has stubbornly remained a tepid 2 percent; but she has said in more than one forum, that a sharper climb is needed.

The pace of hiring has managed to help revive housing and auto sales, according to industry reports. Pay raises are meager. Retailers added 35,900 workers in July and restaurants 29,300. More jobs were also added in construction.

The Nasdaq composite lost 40 points, or 0.8 percent, to 5,016.

Deputy governor Ben Broadbent yesterday said he saw no urgency to increase rates and pointed out that the recent fall in oil prices had “delayed any rebound in inflation until early or spring next year”. The broad-based pickup was accompanied by a flurry of orders, prodding more companies to beef up staff levels. And instead of spending their savings at the gasoline pump, consumers have mostly pocketed the additional cash.

“If we can keep the expansion going, the problem [with black employment] becomes less significant as the labor market gets stronger”, economist Madowitz says.

Federal officials began tracking employment among people with disabilities in October 2008.

The decline of workers in the workforce is clearly a trend, and not a good one.

In preparation for potential market turmoil when the Fed finally lifts rates, many bond funds have started building up their cash buffers.

The temp penetration rate in July fell to 2.037% from June’s rate of 2.046%.

The national numbers were reflected in the latest monthly economic report by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

The jobs added in May and June were also revised by the Labor Department, increasing by a total of 14,000. In eight of the 10 states with the highest underemployment, GDP has either contracted or grown slower than the national growth rate over the past eight years.

More layoffs in the high paying energy sector, which is grappling with the continuing deep dive in Crude Oil prices, were a drag on mining payrolls, which shed 4,000 jobs in July.

The Labor Department’s broadest measure of unemployment, which includes people working in part-time positions because they can’t find full-time jobs, declined 0.1 percentage point to 10.4 percent.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3 percent.