US employment up by 162,000 in July
The US economy added 162,000 new jobs in July, according to the US Labor Department.
The figure - which measures the number of jobs outside the US farming sector - was below economists' expectations of more than 180,000 and the government also cut its previous estimates for hiring in May and June.
Nonetheless, the new jobs took the unemployment rate in the US to 7.4%.
That was down from 7.6% and is the lowest jobless rate in four years.
The news adds to the picture of a slowly growing US economy and may make its central bank more likely to end its monetary stimulus programme.
The Federal Reserve is currently buying $85bn a month in bonds which helps to keep borrowing costs low.
Its chairman, Ben Bernanke, said last month that it might start cutting down the rate of bond buying by the end of the year and stop altogether by the middle of next year.
Latest figures for the US economy show it grew at 1.4% in the first half of the year, well below the 2.5% recorded for the same period in 2012.
Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk
