Unemployment dips to lowest rate since 2008

Job gains in July were modest, but solid, according to the latest Employment Situation Summary from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Significant job gains in July occurred in food services (53,000 jobs), professional and business services (49,000 jobs), and health care (39,000 jobs).

The June jobs report showed that top-line job growth was 222,000, and employment growth was broadly distributed.

The number of workers forced to find a part-time job remains high at 5.3 million.

President Trump lost little time in reacting to the report, hailing it on Twitter as "excellent" and saying, "I have only just begun".

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July. In June their unemployment rate was 6.4 percent. That's not too far above the level previous to the last recession in 2007, which is a good indication that the job market is healthier, but that has been a trend going back over the last couple of years, too. According to Statistics Canada's monthly labour force survey, 81,300 people had jobs, compared to 80,600 in June. The revisions to the prior two months data were largely offsetting, so bringing the three month average to 195,000.

More Americans are finding jobs, and the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low.

The government said Friday that average hourly earnings for workers rose 2.5% over the past 12 months, to $26.36 an hour.

The number of jobs added to the U.S. economy in July is not the most important thing that will be revealed in Friday's jobs report. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 6 cents to $22.10. That was quite a bit more than 180,000 expected, but it was lower than July's level of 231,000, which was revised higher from 220,000 initially reported.

10 year US Treasury yields also jumped by around 2 basis points to 2.25 per cent.

This measure does not account for those individuals who have dropped out of the labor force-it simply measures the percent of those who did not have a job but actively sought one over the month.

Last year, it consistently had the lowest unemployment rate, falling to as low as 3.2 per cent in April 2016.