U.S. unemployment rate falls to 10.2 pct in July amid hiring slowdown

Source: Xinhua | 2020-08-08

U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent amid reopening efforts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

"These improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it," the bureau said in its jobs report.

The largest employment increases in July occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, retail trade, professional and business services, other services, and health care, according to the report.

The unemployment rate previously soared to a record 14.7 percent in April, as COVID-19 ravaged the economy. It declined slightly to 13.3 percent in May and continued to fall to 11.1 percent in June, as businesses gradually reopened across the country.

The jobs report came one day after the labor department reported the number of initial jobless claims in the United States had fallen to 1.186 million last week, following an increase for two consecutive weeks amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

With the latest numbers, more than 55 million initial jobless claims have been filed over the past 20 weeks, indicating the mounting economic fallout related to the pandemic.

The extra 600-U.S.-dollar weekly unemployment benefit for every unemployed, which benefited nearly 30 million Americans, expired last week, as Republican and Democratic lawmakers failed to reach a deal over the next COVID-19 relief bill.

The White House and Congressional Democrats aim to strike a deal on the relief package by the end of this week, though the two sides remain far apart on some important issues.