215,000 jobs added in July in broad-based gain

Washington

EMPLOYERS added 215,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 per cent, signs of further progress in the US labour market that's keeping the Federal Reserve on the path towards raising interest rates as soon as next month.

The gain in payrolls last month followed a 231,000 advance in June that was bigger than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed on Friday in Washington. While the data also showed a pick-up in hours worked, average hourly earnings climbed a less-than-forecast 2.1 per cent from a year earlier, indicating little momentum in wage growth.

The persistent pace of hiring this year indicates companies are sanguine about prospects for demand in the face of a tempered global growth outlook. Better job security that leads to bigger wage gains could…