July unemployment rate down 0.2% to 7.4%, 162,000 jobs created

Credit: Calculated Risk

Fresh electrons from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the July unemployment rate was 7.4%, 0.2% lower than the June unemployment rate. 162,000 non-farm payroll jobs were created, which is below expectations.

The broader U6 unemployment rate was down 0.3% to 14.0%. Chemical manufacturing was up slightly to 797,200, an increase of 1,700 jobs.

The unemployment rate of all college graduates was down 0.1% to 3.8%; the unemployment rate of people who did not graduate from high school was up 0.3% to 11.0%.

Basically, another month of the long, slow slog back to something approaching full employment.

Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for the graph.