The US job market slowed substantially in July and was much weaker than previously thought in previous months, suggesting President Donald Trump’s trade policy may be forcing employers to wait on the sidelines.
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The US economy added just 73,000 jobs last month, and the monthly totals for May and June were revised down by 258,000 jobs, to 19,000 and 14,000, respectively, according to data released Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With those monumental revisions, job growth in June was the weakest in more than four years.
Stock futures dropped lower after the jobs report. Dow futures were down 450 points, or 1%. S&P 500 futures fell 1.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.3%. Traders now expect a 67% chance of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve in September, up from a 38% chance on Thursday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Trump’s “unorthodox economic agenda and policies may be starting to make a dent in the labor market, and especially troubling was the massive downward revisions of over a quarter million jobs in May and June,” Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, wrote in a note Friday.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%. Economists were expecting the report to show a slowdown in job growth, as hiring across the vast majority of industries has been weak.
They anticipated 115,000 jobs added and an unemployment rate of 4.2%, according to FactSet consensus estimates.
This story is developing and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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