By Alicia Wallace, CNN Business
The US economy has now regained all jobs lost during the pandemic, after a blowout July jobs report that showed a gain of 528,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The massive monthly gain was more than double the 250,000 that economists were expecting, according to Refinitiv.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5% after holding at 3.6% for the past four months. The July jobless rate matched the half-century low last seen in February 2020.
Friday’s employment snapshot marks the 19th consecutive month of job growth and is the highest monthly gain since the economy added 714,000 jobs in February. July’s job totals outpace the average monthly gain of 388,000 jobs of the past four months, BLS data shows.
The employment growth was widespread across sectors, with leisure and hospitality seeing some of the biggest gains. However,…
