Great again: Record 153,513,000 Employed in July

CNS News
August 4, 2017

President Trump was awake early on this “employment report” Friday, tweeting about jobs, regulation-busting, and consumer confidence, among other things.

A few hours later, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 209,000 jobs in July; the number of employed people jumped by 345,000 to 153,513,000 in July, setting a third straight monthly record; the number of Americans counted as not in the labor force, meaning they don’t have a job and are not looking for one, dropped for a third straight month to 94,657,000; and the nation’s unemployment rate also dropped a tenth of a point, to 4.3 percent.

The labor force participation rate, held down in part by a wave of Baby Boomer retirements, was  62.9 percent in July, slightly better than it has been in recent months, but still close to its 38-year low of 62.4 percent in September 2015. (The record high ws 67.3 percent in 2000.)

In July, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 255,151,000. Of those, 160,494,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.

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