Economists and analysts widely praised July’s Employment Situation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday, not just for the headline number, but also for the majority of the data contained within. Payrolls added 255 thousand jobs added in July, which beat MarketWatch’s forecasted number of 185 thousand by 70 thousand.
July’s job gains, combined with June’s upwardly revised total of 292,000, brought the average monthly job gain for May through July up to 190,000 despite May’s dismal showing (24,000 after an upward revision). It was not all about the job gains, however; July’s employment summary also contained strong wage growth (an increase of 8 cents up to $25.69 per hour, and an over-the year increase of 2.6 percent) and the unemployment rate stayed below 5 percent at 4.9.
High mortgage delinquency rates and high mortgages in the New York region’s metro areas continued to bog down the New York Federal Reserve Bank in the second quarter. Coupled with other household and credit card debts, the overall picture for NYFED’s region is one of consumers having more trouble managing their debts. NYFED’s Regional Household Debt and Credit Snapshots report ,which examined borrowing and indebtedness trends throughout the New Jersey/New York/Connecticut region, showed consumer distress rates between 14 and 15 percent. These are below the national rate of 19.6 percent, but the good news was offset by state-level mortgage delinquency rates that were above the national average.