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Employers added just 22,000 jobs last month, fewer than expected, while the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.2% to 4.3%, according to the Labor Department.
The figures cap a string of shaky data this week on the job market and add to the concerns that spiked last month, when the Labor Department said hiring in May and June had been far weaker than it had initially estimated. On Friday, the department said its latest estimates showed the US actually lost jobs in June, the first such decline since 2020. Investors, who had already been betting that the US central bank would respond to the weakening labor market with a cut to interest rates at its meeting this month, said that move was now all but certain. "The warning bell that rang in the labor market a month ago just got louder," said Olu Sonola, head of US economic research for Fitch Ratings.
Despite decent crop yields this harvest season, farmers are faced with low commodity prices for the second year in a row as tariffs raise prices of equipment and fertilizer.
On the 3,200 acres of land in the Creston area where Doug Manning grows cereal and pulse crops, he’s noticed good yields so far this harvest season. But his winter wheat isn’t popping with its usual amber color, and the markers indicating high protein are down. “We’ve had decent yields overall, but it suffered on the quality side,” Manning said. “The rains came and usually we like the rain, but it was a little late.” This July, Kalispell saw more than 1.63 inches of rain – nearly a half inch above normal. The mid-summer moisture boosted spring-seeded yields, but it resulted in lower quality crops for Flathead Valley producers and will lead to price docking at the grain elevator. But the weather is only one variable that factors into the harvest season.
Republicans Move to Lift Drilling and Mining Restrictions
Republican lawmakers in Congress are clearing the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to expand mining and drilling on public lands by moving to eliminate energy development limits in several Western states.
House Republicans on Wednesday night voted largely along party lines to repeal land management plans adopted in the closing days of former President Joe Biden’s administration that restricted development in large areas of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota. Biden’s goal was in part to reduce climate-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Under Trump, Republicans are casting aside those aspirations as they open more taxpayer-owned land to development, hoping to create more jobs and revenue. Democrats had urged rejection of the repeals, which were accomplished using a procedure known as the Congressional Review Act that allows lawmakers to undo actions taken by the executive branch.“
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