Despite national job growth, consumers still wary
Marking the sixth straight month of job growth of more than 200,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that 209,000 jobs were added in July.
However, the government reported that the unemployment rate for the month was 6.2 percent, ticking up one tenth of a percentage point.
Job gains were seen in several categories including professional and business services (up 47,000 jobs), manufacturing (up 28,000 jobs), retail (up 28,000 jobs), and construction (up 22,000 jobs).
Health care saw little change in July as gains in ambulatory health care services (up 21,000 jobs) were largely offset by losses in hospitals ( down 7,000 jobs) and nursing care facilities (down 6,000 jobs), according to BLS figures.
Despite positive news on the job front, consumer sentiment dipped slightly in July, according to data released Friday from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters.
The organizations' consumer sentiment index registered 81.8 in the July 2014 survey, slightly below the 82.5 in June and the 85.1 recorded last July, the survey said.
“Despite the recent gains in jobs and wages, consumers have yet to interpret these gains as an indication that more robust growth in jobs and wages will be forthcoming in the future,” Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist, said in a statement. “The slow and uneven pace of the recovery in jobs and incomes during the past five years has made consumers unwilling to put much stock in favorable economic forecasts until repeatedly confirmed by positive realizations.”
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