US Employers Add 528,000 Jobs, Defy Recession Fears

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying anxiety about a possible recession and raging inflation, America’s employers added a stunning 528,000 jobs last month, restoring all the jobs lost in the coronavirus recession.

The red-hot jobs numbers from the Labor Department on Friday arrive amid a growing consensus that the U.S.

But most economists believe the strong jobs market has kept the economy from slipping into a downturn.

The surprisingly strong jobs numbers will undoubtedly intensify the debate over whether the U.S.

The Labor Department also revised May and June hiring, saying an extra 28,000 jobs were created in those months.

Hourly earnings posted a healthy 0.5% gain last month and are up 5.2% over the past year — still not enough to keep up with inflation.

The jobless rate fell as the number of Americans saying they had jobs rose by 179,000 and the number saying they were unemployed dropped by 242,000.

The strong job numbers are likely to encourage the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates to cool the economy and combat resurgent inflation.

rate tightening from the Fed already this year clearly shows that the Fed has more work to do,′ said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.

The resiliency of the current labor market, especially the low jobless rate — is the biggest reason most economists don’t believe a downturn has started yet, though they increasingly fear that one is on the way.

In the United States, inflation has been rising steadily for more than a year.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 10.7 million job openings in June — a healthy number but the lowest since September.