Nonfarm Sector Added 169,000 Workers in July --- Gain May Indicate U.S. Still Is Safe From Recession; Jobless Rate Falls 0.1%
WASHINGTON -- The considerable growth in new jobs throughout the economy suggests the U.S. is still safe from recession, many economists say.</br></br>American businesses outside the farm sector added 169,000 new workers to their payrolls last month, with gains in construction, manufacturing and service industries, the Labor Department reported. The department also made a huge revision to its calculation of job growth for June. Employers added 250,000 new employees during the month, it said, many more than the 180,000 originally estimated.</br></br>The nation's civilian unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage point in July, to 5.2%, holding the jobless rate in a range that hasn't been seen since the mid-1970s.</br></br>"It clearly allays fears of a recession," said Robert Giordano, co-director of economic research at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York.</br></br>"There was very little that was bearish in this report," added Norman Robertson, chief economist at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.