For Immediate Release: Friday, August 3, 2012
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Underlying labor market trend is around 150,000 jobs added per month

The labor market began the second half of 2012 a little brighter than in recent months, with the Employment Situation report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the addition of 163,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate holding roughly steady.  But in today’s Jobs Picture, EPI economist Heidi Shierholz’s detailed analysis shows that this month’s bright spot dims as racial and ethnic minorities continue to be hit particularly hard by unemployment. Unemployment in July was 14.1 percent for African American workers and 10.3 percent for Hispanic workers, compared with 7.4 percent for white workers.

National employment and unemployment data are updated monthly on The State of Working America website.