The economy added 215,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.3 percent—its lowest level since 2008. Over the past two years, our economy created 5.7 million jobs, the strongest two-year job growth since 2000. And our businesses have created 13.0 million jobs over the past 65 straight months, extending the longest streak on record. But despite the rapid pace of recent growth, some slack left over from the financial crisis remains in our labor market, and there is more work to do to ensure that we continue to make progress. That’s why the President is committed to pushing Congress to increase investments in infrastructure as part of a long-term transportation reauthorization, opening new markets for U.S. goods and services through expanded trade, providing relief from the sequester, and raising the minimum wage.
FIVE KEY POINTS ON THE LABOR MARKET IN JULY 2015
1. The private sector has added 13.0 million jobs over 65 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that private-sector employment rose by 210,000 in July. Our businesses created more than 200,000 jobs in fifteen of the past seventeen months. In fact, we have created over 5.5 million private-sector jobs over the past two years—more than in any two-year period since 1997-1999.