The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4% —a new low of the pandemic era— the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

It was the biggest job gain since August last year, when more than 1 million positions were added back, and more than the 870,000 economists had expected.

The June jobs gains was revised up as well, to 938,000 positions added, showing the recovery’s strong pace over the summer.

Since May 2020, America has added back 16.7 million jobs. But it’s still 5.7 million short of its pre-pandemic level.

President Joe Biden on Friday touted the success of his administration’s economic policies but tempered his message saying, ‘we doubtlessly will have ups and downs along the way as we continue to battle the Delta surge of Covid.’

Still a long way to go

The hospitality and leisure industries — decimated by lockdown measures last year — were once again the biggest contributors of job gains, accounting for more than a third of the total. Some 253,000 jobs were added in restaurants and bars alone last month.

While the rampant growth is great news, the industry is still down 1.7 million jobs since February last year.

Hiring also picked up in education, according to the seasonally adjusted data. But the labor bureau warned that because hiring and layoffs in education were so distorted by the pandemic, the adjusted data might overstate the hiring in July.

The jobless rate fell to its lowest level since the pandemic started, declining across nearly all demographic groups counted in the survey.

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