Elmer's Brother

Labor Report: Payrolls grow solidly
Abridged: The Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. employers added a healthy 207,000 net new jobs in July, the government said Friday in a report cited as evidence that the economy's momentum from the spring was carrying into the second half of the year. The job gains were enough to keep the unemployment rate at a 40-year low of 5%. In addition, the Labor Department lifted its estimates of job growth for the previous two months by a combined 42,000.

"The economy is on the cusp of a significant acceleration," Goldman Sachs said in its weekly economic wrap-up. UBS chief economist Maury Harris said the job report suggested that the economy was growing faster than a 4% annual rate in July, compared with the 3.4% pace it registered in the April-to-June period.

In another sign of economic strength, workers earned more in July. Production workers made an average of $16.13 an hour, up from $16.07 in June. That was the largest such increase since February 2003. Mark Zandi, chief economist of the consulting firm Economy.com, called the pay gains "a sign that workers are gaining some negotiating power" as the pool of available workers shrinks.