On August 2, 2019, the Department of Labor released the monthly Jobs Report. The Report indicated that nonfarm payrolls increased by 164,000 in July. The figure was in line with consensus estimates. The unemployment rate came in at 3.7%, close to a 50-year low.
While job growth for May and June was revised down by a total of 41,000, the first seven months of 2019 have averaged 165,000 new jobs, leading to total 2019 growth of 1.15 million. By comparison, the average monthly growth for 2018 was 223,000.
Overall, the U.S. economy appears to be slowing down as the second quarter GDP annual growth rate of 2.1% was down sharply from the 3.1% annual rate in the first quarter. Jobs growth will normally track GDP growth so investors may anticipate slower employment growth over the rest of the 2019 year.