The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its July 2024 employment data that measures labor force status, including unemployment by demographic.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 114,000, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, the Bureau reported.

In July, the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points month-to-month, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million. This measure is higher than a year earlier when unemployment was 3.5% and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.5 million in July, up from a year earlier (1.2 million).

Employment gains continued in health care, construction and transportation and warehousing, while information lost jobs.

• Health care added 55,000 jobs in July, in line with the average monthly gain of 63,000 year-over-year. Employment rose in home health services (+22,000), hospitals (+20,000) and nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000).
• Construction continued to trend up in July (+25,000), aligned with the 19,000 monthly gain year-over-year. Specialty trade contractors continued an upward trend (+19,000).
• Employment continued to trend up in transportation and warehousing (+14,000). Job gains in couriers and messengers (+11,000) and warehousing and storage (+11,000), partially offset by job loss in transit and ground passenger transportation (-11,000).
• Information employment declined by 20,000 in July, with little change year-over-year.

Read the full Employment Situation Summary here.