Job growth disappoints
Employers added more jobs in June but not as many as Wall Street expected; unemployment rate falls.
July 8, 2005: 8:46 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. employers added more jobs to payrolls in June, according to a government report that still came in weaker than Wall Street expectations.
The Labor Department's monthly employment report showed 146,000 jobs added to payrolls in June, up from the revised 104,000 jobs added in May. But economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a net gain of 195,000 jobs last month.
Still the unemployment rate, which is based on a different survey, fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent in May. Economists had forecast the rate would remain unchanged at 5.1 percent.
The unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since September 2001, the month of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The average hourly wage edged up 3 cents to $16.06. That was in line with the forecasts of economists and lifted the hourly wages 2.7 percent over the last 12 months. Consumer prices are up about 2.8 percent in the 12 months ending in May, according to an earlier Labor Department report, meaning that the average hourly worker is narrowly losing ground in his or her paycheck.
Stock futures rose following the report while bond prices were little changed after some early volatility immediately following the report. The fact that job growth once again trails expectations as it has for much of the last year is one of the factors seen as keeping the Federal Reserve from being more aggressive in raising interest rates than the central bank's current "measured" pace.