The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in July as fewer jobs were added to the economy than expected, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
The data showed that just 114,000 non-farm jobs were added last month, far less than the 185,000 expected by analysts. Unemployment reached its highest level since October 2021, and 0.8% higher than this time last year.
“The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 4.3 percent in July, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million,” the report said. “These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.5 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.”
According to the bureau, Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Texas on July 7, 2023, did not impact the weak showing.
“Hurricane Beryl had no discernible effect on the national employment and unemployment data for July, and the response rates for the two surveys were within normal ranges,” the report said.
According to the statistics, unemployment increased mainly among men and white people.
“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0 percent) and Whites (3.8 percent) increased in July. The jobless rates for adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (12.4 percent), Blacks (6.3 percent), Asians (3.7 percent), and Hispanics (5.3 percent) showed little or no change over the month,” the report said.
According to Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, native-born Americans have taken the brunt of the job losses over the last year.
“Over the last year, native-born Americans have LOST 1.2 million jobs while foreign-born employment has increased 1.3 million; we’re just swapping out American workers at this point, not growing the pie for everyone,” he said on Friday.
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The bureau said that employment increased in the healthcare, construction, transportation, and warehouse industries while jobs in the information industry declined. Fifty-five thousand jobs were gained in health care, 25,000 in construction, and 14,000 in transportation and warehousing, while information employment dropped 20,000.
The lackluster report prompted some lawmakers to express concerns that the economy would continue to trend in the wrong direction, with persistent inflation still hampering consumers.
“We must replace Kamalanomics with MAGAnomics if we want to avoid a recession! Choose wisely in November!” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said on Friday.
