Economy, hiring up in July, but flat wage growth dampens cheer

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Employers added 209,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate ticked up a notch to 6.2 percent , the government said Friday in a jobs report that did not surprise.

The report. a bit softer than recent months, marked the sixth straight month that non-farm payroll hiring exceeded 200,000, something not seen since 1997.

The numbers don’t change the view of a recovery gaining stream, especially when taken together with Wednesday’s report that the economy grew at at annual rate of 4 percent from April to June.

Government statisticians revised earlier estimates of May and June hiring, adding a combined 15,000 for the prior two months.

Email: khall@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @KevinGHall.