Unemployment rate declines to 10.2 percent, but experts point to 'discouraging' pace of recovery

A restaurant displays a &quot;Now Hiring&quot; sign amid the coronavirus pandemic, on August 4, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia.

(Image credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

published 7 August 2020

The U.S. unemployment rate declined to 10.2 percent in July, as the economy added 1.8 million jobs, the Labor Department said on Friday.

This came after the June jobs report last month showed the unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent, with 4.8 million jobs added. The July report surpassed expectations, as experts were anticipating about 1.48 million jobs would be added and that the unemployment rate would decline to about 10.6 percent, CNBC reports.

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"The economy is still in a massive hole, but we're crawling back out," University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers tweeted. "The problem is that the pace of improvement has slowed to a crawl." MacroPolicy Perspectives economist Julia Coronado similarly told The Wall Street Journal, "The pace of recovery has really been set back by the resurgence of the virus. Given how far we have to go to re-employ the people who have become unemployed, that's very discouraging."

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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