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(Kitco News) - The U.S. labor market continues to fire on all cylinders as the U.S. economy sees robust gain in private-sector jobs in July, according to private payrolls processor ADP.
Wednesday, ADP said that 324,000 jobs were created last month. The data significantly beat expectations as economists were looking for job gains of around 191,000.
"The economy is doing better than expected and a healthy labor market continues to support household spending," said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP, in the report. "We continue to see a slowdown in pay growth without broad-based job loss."
The better-than-expected employment report appears to be weighing on gold prices only slightly as economic uncertainty remains elevated. December gold futures have come off their highs but remain in positive territory for the session, last trading at $1,982.80 an ounce, up 0.20% on the day.
While the U.S. labor market remains healthy, the report noted that wage inflation continues to cool, which some economists have said could be more important than the headline number going forward.
The report said that for employees who stayed in their jobs, wages last month increased 6.2%, the slowest pace of gains since November 2021. For workers who changed jobs last month their wages increased 10.2%.
Some economists have said that falling wage inflation, even as more jobs are created, gives the Federal Reserve more confidence that it has room to pause its tightening cycle.
