209,000 New Jobs In July As Unemployment Dips To 4.3 Percent

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: There are new jobs numbers out today. U.S. job growth beat expectations in July. That's according to the government's monthly employment report. The unemployment rate also returned to a 16-year low. NPR's John Ydstie joins us to talk about all of this. Hey, John. JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel. MARTIN: A better-than-expected report - what's it tell us about the economy? YDSTIE: Well, I think it tells us the economy continues to grow at a solid, if not spectacular, pace. And it may be strengthening a bit. The economy added 209,000 jobs in July. That's about 25,000 more than the average for this year. A lot of people have thought job growth would tail off as this economic recovery, which is now eight years old, gets more mature. And we get low unemployment, which makes the labor market tighter. MARTIN: So the unemployment rate - we say it's returning to a 16-year low because we also touched that mark back in May. YDSTIE: Right.