162,000 Jobs Added In July; Unemployment Drops To 7.4 Percent

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with the jobs report.

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MONTAGNE: The Labor Department says the U.S. economy added 162,000 new jobs last month. That's lower than many economists expected. Still, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent. Workers did have fewer hours on the job and hourly earnings fell in July, for the first time since last fall. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.