Employers added 215,000 jobs in July 2015, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Friday. Job gains occurred in retail trade, health care, professional and technical services, and financial activities.
The New York Times reports that the economy and the job market are improving at the same consistent rate they have been for five years. In the past year, the U.S. has added nearly three million jobs.
This consistent job growth may be evidence for the Federal Reserve that the economy is strong enough to endure an increase in its benchmark interest rate, the L.A. Times reports, for the first time since 2006.