US job growth beats expectations; unemployment rate declines 3.5%

U.S. employers hired far more workers than expected in July, with the unemployment rate falling to a pre-pandemic low of 3.5%, providing the strongest evidence yet that the economy was not in recession.
 

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 528,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. Data for June was revised higher to show 398,000 jobs created instead of the previously reported 372,000.
 

That marked the 19th straight month of payrolls expansion.
 

The unemployment rate was at 3.6% in June.
 

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising by 250,000 jobs and the