Hiring surged in July as U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.4%

Hiring boomed in July before COVID-19 Delta variant cast a shadow on U.S. economic growth. The Department of Labor said Friday that employers added 943,000 jobs last month, exceeding analyst forecasts.

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 5.4% as more jobless Americans found jobs. It's the lowest unemployment rate since March of 2020, the last report before the coronavirus plunged the economy into a short but steep recession. "It is a great sign that this jobs report exceeded expectations," Steve Rick, chief Economist at CUNA Mutual Group, said in a email. "With rapid vaccine rollout and continued reopening efforts we can expect the economy to continue to make steady progress from here out."