The US economy added 528,000 new jobs as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% last month. Despite persistently high inflations with fears of a sustained slowdown with a fall in consumer confidence and a contraction in the housing market, the Department of Labour said job growth in the US was 'widespread' in July with leisure, hospitality, professional and business services and health sectors all adding new jobs.
Wages have also grown in the past month, rising by 0.5% in the past year and 5.2% in the past year. These indicators are strong signs that the economy was shifting from its booming post-pandemic recovery to a more solid and steady phase of growth. The US has now regained all 22 million jobs lost when the pandemic hit with the jobless rate has returning to pre-pandemic levels, hovering at 50-year lows.
