Jobs were clicking south of the border last month.
The U.S. government reported on Friday that employers added 287,000 workers in June, a vigorous rebound as presidential nominees get ready to present their economic visions at conventions just a few weeks from now.
The official unemployment rate rose to 4.9%, from 4.7%. And average hourly earnings ticked up again, continuing a pattern set by three months of rising wages.
The welcome report on Friday showed the largest single monthly job gains since October 2015. The three-month average of monthly gains rose to 147,000.
The unexpectedly grim employment report in May had been disturbing enough to convince every voting member of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee last month to oppose any increase in its benchmark interest rate, as the official account of the meeting, released this week, revealed.
That jobs report, combined with Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, had fanned wider worries that the American economy was in danger of stalling.
Concerns about the vitality of the recovery — which is in its seventh year — persist, but economists pointed to several encouraging signs, like manufacturing and consumer spending data.
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