U.S. Adds 255K Jobs in July

The U.S. added 255,000 jobs during the month of July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics annnounced Friday morning. The numbers handily beat expectations of 180,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent. However, job growth in May was extremely tepid: Just 38,000 new jobs were created, the BLS said originally, but that number has since been revised down to 11,000—and now back up to 24,000. July was the second month in a row of strong job growth that was better than economists had predicted. Additionally, June’s number was revised up to 292,000 from 287,000.