Labor Force Participation Rate Falls In July

The July nonfarm payrolls report was just released, and it came in below expectations.

The American economy added 162,000 nonfarm payrolls in July after creating a downward-revised 188,000 in June. Economists were looking for 185,000 new payrolls in this report.

Despite the lackluster job growth, the unemployment rate still managed to tick down two notches to 7.4% in July from 7.6% in June.

Part of the reason: the labor force participation rate, which fell to 63.4% last month from 63.5% the month before.

The civilian labor force decreased by 37,000 to 155.80 million in July, while those not in the labor force rose by 240,000 to 89.96 million.