Non-farm payrolls decreased by 23,000 in Jul, following a downwardly revised 20,000 gain in Jun (figure 1). This was mainly driven by a 53,000 decline in local government education employment, followed by a 40,000 drop in leisure & hospitality employment (table 1). 

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The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in Jul, down from 4.2% in Jun. The long-term unemployed accounted for 25.5% of all unemployed persons. The average length of unemployment was 27 weeks.

The labour force participation rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 61.4% in Jul, the lowest level since early 2021. The average hourly earnings expanded by 0.1% month-on-month and 3.4% year-on-year to US$37.62. Meanwhile, the average work week remained unchanged at 34.3 hours. 

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