NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 23,000 in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, missing market expectations for an increase of 88,000.
The decline was led by a 50,000 drop in local government education employment, while retail trade and financial activities shed 19,000 and 14,000 jobs, respectively. Health care employment continued to rise, adding 22,000 jobs, while other major industries saw little change.
Meanwhile, growth in U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 66,000 to 63,000, and that for June was revised down by 37,000 to 20,000.
Statistics show that the U.S. unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent in July from 4.2 percent in the previous month. Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff increased by 153,000 to 921,000 in July. The number of permanent job losers changed little at 1.7 million.
The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls ticked up 2 cents to 37.62 U.S. dollars.
Although the release "disappointed across the board," it wasn't all bad, said Jeff Schulze, head of economic and market strategy at ClearBridge Investments. He noted that the drag from local government education was a typical seasonal pattern at the end of the school year and is usually reversed in the fall.
While one data point does not make a trend, some slowing in the labor market, especially downward revisions in the previous two months, deserves to be paid attention to, said Jeff Rosenberg, a portfolio manager at BlackRock Inc. "It is a noisy data set, but I would not completely toss it out of hand."
Following the report, market participants lowered expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September, while the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury fell about 5 basis points. ■
