WASHINGTON — Surprisingly resilient job growth in the past three months has raised the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will start pulling back its massive bond-buying stimulus this fall, but the near-term employment outlook may not be as bright as the latest numbers look.
The much-anticipated employment statistics for June showed that employers added 195,000 jobs over the month, despite analysts’ expectations that federal spending cutbacks and the soft global economy would hold payroll growth to no more than 165,000.
What’s more, the Labor Department’s report Friday revised substantially higher the job gains for May and April, bringing the number of new jobs to nearly 200,000 in those months as well.
The nation’s jobless rate remained at 7.6 percent as more jobless workers, notably women, entered the labor force and offset the increase in employment.
That may be a sign that more people are hopeful about their chances in the job market.
“It’s like bricks off my shoulders,” said Lis De Bats, a 54-year-old Agoura Hills, Calif., resident who recently landed a job after a 15-month search. “So many people around you, as much as they love you, think you aren’t trying hard enough.
“They don’t know what it’s like down in the trenches.”
Yet even as these positive trends buoyed investors’ spirits — leading stock gauges rose about 1 percent on Friday — a large share of the new jobs have come in lower-paying businesses.
And it’s far from clear that the recent pattern of overall job growth can hold up in the second half of this year.