Estados Unidos perdió 23.000 puestos de trabajo en julio, el peor dato para ese mes desde 2010

The United States lost 23,000 jobs in July, the worst figure for that month since 2010, according to data released by the Labor Statistics Office (BLS). This is the poorest July for employment since then, raising alarms about the economy's health as predictions called for 80,000 job creations. The labor market situation, which has been showing nervous swings this year, is further intensified by the data, marking the weakest monthly job growth since the pandemic began.

Many temporary contracts ended following the conclusion of the summer World Cup in the US are one explanation for the job losses, but the cooling of the American labor market is deeper than that: tariffs, migration policy, uncertainty over Iran's war, and the emergence of artificial intelligence contribute to the slowdown. Concerns grow as the office's automatic revision of the previous two months' data subtracts 100,000 jobs from the estimated creation of jobs in May and June.

Job losses were recorded in local government, education, and retail trade sectors, with the education sector of local government shedding 50,000 jobs in July. The retail and warehouse-related sector, logistics centers, and other retailers of general merchandise lost a total of 40,000 jobs. Service station and fuel distributors reduced their workforce by 5,000, coinciding with an unusual increase in fuel prices due to the war against Iran.

The data will serve the Federal Reserve to argue against raising interest rates. Although inflation has been above the 2% target for over five years, with the latest data sitting at 3.5%, the labor market weakness will be used by the new governor to avoid interest rate hikes that could disappoint the US president, Donald Trump, a fervent defender of rate cuts.

"This report cannot be described otherwise than weak," analysts from Bloomberg say. The data also surprises as Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh expressed optimism about the labor market's performance just a few weeks ago: "The economy is showing impressive resilience. Even in the face of recent disruptions, the trends are positive and reflect strong growth.

Employment growth has followed the population's active participation rate, and unemployment rates have varied very little." The data confirms the gradual loss of families' purchasing power over the past year, due to the rise in inflation caused by Trump's tariffs and the consequences of the war against Iran on the energy market.

The average hourly wage increased by 3.2% over the past year, below inflation (3.5%). The unemployment rate dropped by a tenth to 4.1%, mainly due to a reduction in the labor force. The labor force participation rate is now at its lowest since February 2021.