The U.S. economy added 195,000 jobs in June, continuing a steady expansion as private hiring across a broad spectrum of businesses offset small declines in federal government employment and manufacturing.
The number beat analysts' forecasts, and while not enough to push down the 7.6 percent unemployment rate may stoke expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin reducing its support for U.S. financial markets this fall. The timing of any Fed "tapering" of its monthly asset purchases has become a key issue in the debate over domestic and global economic policy and is tied closely to growth in the U.S. economy and progress on reducing the unemployment rate.