We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free.
So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Here is a list of our partners.
Job Market Weakens in July
Job gains came in well below expectations. June and May numbers were revised downward.
Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you take certain actions on our website or click to take an action on their website. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
Updated · 9 min read
How is this page expert verified?
NerdWallet's content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. It undergoes a thorough review process involving writers and editors to ensure the information is as clear and complete as possible.
Anna Helhoski is a senior writer covering economic news and trends in consumer finance at NerdWallet. She is an on-air contributor and producer of Money News segments for NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. She is also an authority on student loans. She joined NerdWallet in 2014. Her work has been syndicated in news outlets nationwide including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and USA Today. She previously covered local news in the New York metro area for the Daily Voice and New York state politics for The Legislative Gazette. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Purchase College, State University of New York.
Laura McMullen assigns and edits financial news content. She was previously a senior writer at NerdWallet and covered saving, making and budgeting money; she also contributed to the "Millennial Money" column for The Associated Press. Before joining NerdWallet in 2015, Laura worked for U.S. News & World Report, where she wrote and edited content related to careers, wellness and education and also contributed to the company's rankings projects. Before working at U.S. News & World Report, Laura interned at Vice Media and studied journalism, history and Arabic at Ohio University. Laura lives in Washington, D.C.
Published in
Editor & Content Strategist
Updated on Aug. 21.
What are the weekly jobless claims?
Initial jobless claims went up for the week ending Aug. 16, according to the report released on Aug. 21.
Why it matters: The weekly jobless claims, or initial claims, are the number of unemployment insurance claims filed in the past week. They provide an indicator of the strength — or weakness — of the labor market.
Learn more about this week's jobless claims
Jobless claims were 235,000 for the week ending Aug. 16, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 224,000.
The new four-week moving average — a measurement of the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time over the last four weeks — was 226,250, up by 4,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 221,750.
What's the insured unemployment rate?
Not all types of unemployment are included as part of the insured unemployment rate. It only includes "covered unemployment," as in people who receive unemployment benefits. Those who quit their jobs, for example, aren't included in the insured unemployment rate because they aren't eligible for unemployment benefits.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate — the rate of continuous covered unemployment claims divided by covered employment — remained at 1.3% for the week ending Aug. 9, compared to the previous week’s unrevised rate.
Trump’s pick to head BLS wants to suspend jobs report
President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, says the monthly jobs data should be suspended in favor of a quarterly jobs report.
Trump announced Antoni as his choice to lead the BLS on Monday. Soon after, in an interview with Fox News Digital, Antoni said that the BLS should stop issuing reports until its methods are improved to limit revisions. “Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly jobs reports, but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” said Antoni, who is currently the chief economist at the right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation.
On Aug. 1, Trump fired the former BLS head Erika McEntarfer after accusing her of manipulating data to damage his administration. Trump provided no evidence for his claim. The dismissal followed a worse-than-expected jobs report for July that included significant downward revisions to the number of jobs added in May and June.
NerdWallet Economist Elizabeth Renter had this to say: Monthly jobs data is crucial information that shouldn’t be suspended or delayed because of large revisions. The biggest revisions to jobs data often happen when the economy hits a turning point — economists and economic policymakers largely understand this. To slow the availability of the data at such a juncture could severely hamper the ability of the Fed to conduct effective monetary policy, among other things.
With most economic data, there is a trade-off: Some comes less frequently and is more precise, whereas other data comes at a higher frequency but may be more inexact. And all of them — annual, quarterly, monthly and even weekly — are estimates. None are exact. There are needs for monthly labor market data, not the least of which is effective monetary policy. It’s true that the potential for large revisions makes deciphering the data more difficult, but the solution is not to eliminate this important input in economic and policy decisions.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% in July, compared to 4.1% in June, according to the jobs report released on Aug. 1 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Here are some other takeaways from the report:
Job gains came in below projections in July with a total of 73,000. The consensus estimated monthly expectation was a 117,500 increase, according to Morningstar, an investing firm.
Job gains in the previous two months were revised down significantly: From 144,000 to 19,000 in June and 147,000 to 14,000 in May.
Employment rose in health care and social assistance.
For the sixth month in a row, employment went down in the federal government due to mass federal workforce cuts made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Employees on paid leave or receiving severance are considered employed, which means the full effect of the cuts are yet to show up in the report.
Average hourly earnings of all private nonfarm employee payrolls rose by 3.9% over the past 12 months from $35.07 per hour in July 2024 to $36.44 per hour in July 2025.
What the latest job market data means for you
The July jobs report shows that the labor market is cooling, demonstrated by modest job growth for the month and major downward revisions to jobs added in May and June (a combined total of -258,000).
Wage growth (3.9%) remains above inflation growth (2.6%), which means consumers are more likely to remain resilient in the face of price increases — that is, unless there are price shocks. The effect of tariffs on prices haven’t fully set in so it’s unclear how that might impact inflation growth.
There are some vulnerabilities in the job market continuing to trend, including more workers remaining in long-term unemployment, which shows workers may be having more difficulty re-entering the job market. The labor force participation rate also remains sluggish.
Both the health care and social assistance sectors showed strong labor demand, while the number of federal government jobs continued to wane.
Overall, the latest data reflects growing caution among employers as the projected economic picture remains hazy.
What a NerdWallet expert says
Elizabeth Renter, economist at NerdWallet, says recent jobs reports show continued cooling in the labor market, but it’s not “fully on-ice.”
“Fewer jobs are being added, hiring continues to slow and workers aren’t quitting their jobs with expectations of finding another quickly. This hard data continues to confirm what we’ve heard from consumer sentiment (“soft”) data about the labor market — that there are fewer jobs available, and that folks are less optimistic about their ability to hold onto their current role. That said, the unemployment rate remains steady and layoffs aren’t climbing.”
The current unemployment rate is 4.2% for July, a 0.1 percentage point increase from June (4.1%). The rate is higher than unemployment rates during 2023 and 2024.
How the unemployment rate is calculated
The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the number of people in the labor force. (The labor force is considered the sum of those who are currently working or looking for work.) The result is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Number of unemployed people / Labor force x 100 = X%, which is the unemployment rate
Is unemployment rising or falling?
The current unemployment rate is 4.2% for July, a 0.1 percentage point increase from June (4.1%). The rate is higher than unemployment rates during 2023 and 2024.
The unemployment rate went up by 0.1 percentage point in January, February and March, but was unchanged in April.
Will unemployment go up soon?
The recent rise in unemployment was a byproduct of monetary policymakers’ effort to curb inflation by hiking interest rates. The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. Now that inflation is consistently slowing, the Fed has taken steps to prevent unemployment from rising further.
The Fed cut rates at its September, November and December meetings. It paused rates at every meeting so far in 2025, but has indicated that there could be some rate cuts in 2025.
Wage growth is moderating from what it was a year ago but is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The three-month moving average of median hourly wage growth — when measured over the previous 12 months — has slowed from its peak in the summer of 2022.
For June, the three-month wage growth percent change was 4.2%, which is in line with the three-month moving average rate since November 2024.
The 12-month moving average for all workers — part-time and full-time — was 4.3% in June, a 0.1 percentage point decline from May. By comparison, the percent change for June 2024 from a year prior was 5.1%. If you look back even further, at the percent change for June 2020 from a year prior, the rate was 3.6%.
Below, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta data for June shows a steady three-month moving average of wage growth compared to peak rates in June 2022 and July 2022.
What does the Employment Cost Index show?
Increases in compensation costs in the second quarter of 2025 were the same as the first quarter, according to the most recent quarterly BLS Employment Cost Index, which measures wage and salary growth. Wages and salaries, as well as benefits comprise total compensation costs.
The July 31 report shows compensation costs increased by 0.9% in the second quarter of 2025, matching the increase in the first quarter.
Year-over-year measurements show that compensation cost increases held steady in Q2 2025 (3.6%), matching the pace of the first quarter, but still slower than the rates seen throughout 2024.
Q1 2025: 3.6%
Q4 2024: 3.8%
Q3 2024: 3.9%
Q2 2024: 4.0%
Q1 2024: 4.2%
For the 12-month period ending in June 2025, wages and salaries increased 3.6%, a decrease from 4.2% in the 12-month period ending in June 2024.
Benefit costs had a lower increase in the 12-month period ending in June (3.5%) compared to June 2024 (3.8%).
The economy added 73,000 in July, according to the BLS, well below expected gains. Here’s how many jobs were added in previous months.
14,000 in June 2025.
19,000 in May 2025.
158,000 in April 2025.
120,000 in March 2025
102,000 in February 2025.
111,000 in January 2025.
323,000 in December 2024.
261,000 in November 2024
159,068 in October 2024
159,025 in September 2024
158,770 in August 2024
144,000 in July 2024
What is the labor force participation rate?
The labor force participation rate went down slightly at 62.2% in July, compared to 62.3% in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why it matters: The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working or looking for work.
The rate is calculated as the labor force divided by the total population that’s eligible to work. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the total population that’s eligible to work as the “civilian noninstitutional population,” which refers to people ages 16 and older who are not in military service or incarcerated.) The result is multiplied by 100 to get a percentage:
Labor force / Civilian noninstitutional population x 100 = X%, which is the labor force participation rate
Since October 2002, the labor force participation rate was lowest in April 2020 (60.1%) and highest in June 2003 (66.5%), according to BLS data.
How many job openings were there in June?
The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), released on July 29, shows job openings were 7.4 million in June. The number of openings in June mirrors the number of openings a year ago.
7.7 million in May.
7.4 million in April
7.2 million in March
7.5 million in February
7.8 million January
7.5 million in December
8 million in November
7.6 million in October
7.1 million in September
7.7 million in August 2024
7.5 million in July 2024
7.4 million in June 2024
The seasonally adjusted job openings went down slightly to 4.4% in June from 4.6% in May. By comparison, the job openings rate in June 2024 was 4.5%.
The number of job openings went down in accommodation and food services (-308,000); health care and social assistance (-244,000); and finance and insurance (-142,000). The number of job openings went up in retail trade (+190,000); information (+67,000); and state and local government education (+61,000).
What is the layoff rate?
The rate of layoffs in June (1%) was the same as it was in May (1%), according to the most recent JOLTS report. Layoffs and discharges went down in arts, entertainment, and recreation (-35,000) and in state and local government education (-19,000). The number of layoffs and discharges ticked up in mining and logging (+5,000).
What is the quit rate?
The JOLTS report also shows the quit rate in June was 2%, a slight decrease from May (2.1%). The current rate is 0.1 percentage point lower than the quit rate in June 2024. Quits went down in professional and business services (-114,000); state and local government education (-20,000); and federal government (-5,000).
Why it matters: Economists say quit rates are a key factor in the health of employment prospects since quitting shows that workers feel safe making a job switch within their sector or outside it entirely.
The current quit rate is consistent with pre-pandemic levels after peaking at 3% in both Nov. 2021 and April 2022.
When is the next jobs report?
The next jobs report will show data for August and it will be released on Sept. 5.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News via Getty Images)
