The US Department of Labor reported Friday that 163,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in July, the largest monthly increase since 2006. However, the unemployment rate still edged up 0.1 percent to 8.3 percent as the number of persons actively searching for a job rose.
In the manufacturing sector, unemployment was 7.2 percent in July, compared to 9.2 percent in July 2011. Construction unemployment fell 13.6 percent a year ago to 12.3 percent in July 2012, and the transportation and utilities employment rate of 6.5 percent was 1.3 percent lower than in the same month a year ago.