The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in July as fewer jobs were added to the economy than expected, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
The data showed that just 114,000 non-farm jobs were added last month, far less than the 185,000 expected by analysts. Unemployment reached its highest level since October 2021, and 0.8% higher than this time last year.
“The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 4.3 percent in July, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million,” the report said. “These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.5 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.”
According to the bureau, Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Texas on July 7, 2023, did not impact the weak showing.
“Hurricane Beryl had no discernible effect on the national…
