The Labor Department reported this morning that the economy added 164,000 jobs during the month of July, which is almost exactly the average monthly gain for the year. The headline unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent.
The bad news: Job gains for the two previous months were revised downward by a total of 41,000. Over the past three months, monthly job growth has averaged about 140,000 — down from 233,000 in the final three months of 2018.
On the other hand, an influx of 370,000 new workers to the labor force brought the labor participation rate up to 63 percent, its highest since March. The total labor force of 163.4 million Americans set a new record high.
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