The stiff unemployment figure surprised economists, who had expected the US Bureau of Labor Statistics would report 3.5% joblessness across the US, even with July.
Stocks were spiking in premarket activity as traders bet on a lower likelihood that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at its next policy meeting. Manufacturing payrolls rose by 16,000 compared to the previous month, according to Labor Department data. But the economy, though growing more slowly than it did during the boom that followed the pandemic recession of 2020, has defied the squeeze of increasingly high borrowing costs.