08/05/2005
U.S. employers added 207,000 jobs last month with widespread gains in the service sector, the Labor Department reported today. Since January, businesses have created 2.2 million jobs.
The sector adding the most jobs last month was retail, which created 50,000 new jobs. Employment in manufacturing, which has had a difficult time bouncing back since 2003, stayed the same.
Despite the boost in jobs, the unemployment rate maintained at 5 percent.
“We have had 26 straight months of job growth with nearly 4 million jobs created since May 2003,” said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. “With 133.8 million payroll jobs, more Americans are working now than ever before — a record high for the seventh consecutive month.”
