U.S. job growth beats expectations; unemployment rate fall 3.5%

File pic -Tim Boyle/Getty Images/AFP

WASHINGTON: U.S. employers hired far more workers than expected in July, with the unemployment rate falling to a pre-pandemic low of 3.5%, providing the strongest evidence yet that the economy was not in recession.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 528,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. Data for June was revised higher to show 398,000 jobs created instead of the previously reported 372,000.