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US chalks up more temp job gains in July

August 01, 2014

The U.S. added 8,500 temporary help services jobs in July, and the penetration — temporary jobs as a percent of total employment — rose to set another record at 2.07 percent, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Year-over-year growth in temporary jobs decelerated to 8.13 percent in July, a trend since March.

Looking at total employment across industries in July, the U.S added 209,000 jobs — below the 288,000 added in June based on revised data.

The unemployment rate edged up to 6.2 percent in July from 6.1 percent in June. The college-level unemployment rate fell to 3.1 percent in July from 3.3 percent in June.

“The economy generated a gain of 209,000 jobs in July, very close to the average of more than 200,000 per month over the past year,” according to commentary by The Conference Board. “This means that the trend in employment growth, which supported stellar second quarter GDP growth and strong consumer and business confidence, is holding up for now. The unemployment rate has remained almost unchanged at 6.2 percent, still well above the natural rate of unemployment, which is about 5.5 percent. This implies that the pace of job creation can continue for a few more months beyond the summer. However, participation isn’t increasing rapidly, with baby boomers retiring en masse. Moreover, labor productivity, which has been low for a long time, may become a more important source of growth. These forces could also begin to create more upward pressure on wages later this year.”

Click on charts below to enlarge.

Note: This story has been corrected from a previous version.