Washington, DC, Aug. 1--Employers cut jobs for a sixth consecutive month in July, suggesting that businesses remain skittish about expanding their payrolls despite expectations of accelerating economic growth in the next few months.
Nonfarm-business payrolls declined by 44,000 last month, raising the number of jobs lost since the start of the year to 486,000. Still, the unemployment rate declined for the first time since January as the labor force shrank by 556,000. The jobless rate dropped by two tenths of a percentage point to 6.2%.
Economists had expected payrolls to increase by 25,000 and the unemployment rate to come in at 6.3%, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC.
Separately, personal income climbed 0.3% in June after a 0.3% rise in May, the Commerce Department reported. Personal consumption increased 0.3% after a revised 0.4% gain in the previous month. Personal income matched expectations but spending was just shy of the 0.4% economists had forecast.
