Employment
Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy added 79.2k jobs in July 2026. This gain was driven by significant job gains in the Health Care and Social Assistance, and the Manufacturing sectors. Meanwhile, the Leisure and Hospitality and the Retail Trade sectors saw declines in employment.
Within these sectors, the employers with the largest increases in employment were HCA Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente in Health Care and Social Assistance, and Lockheed Martin and Tesla in Manufacturing. On the other hand, the largest employment losses happened in the Leisure and Hospitality sector, driven primarily by Starbucks and Inspire Brands.
Layoff notices
We observe a slight increase in the number of employees notified of layoffs as part of WARN layoff notices in July. In general, mass layoffs have been largely stable since the beginning of 2026, with minor fluctuations every month. The number of employees notified of layoffs increased to 27k employees in July compared to 23k employees in June.
For the second month in a row, the Manufacturing sector saw the largest number of employees notified of layoffs in July, followed by the Information sector. The layoffs in the Manufacturing sector were primarily driven by layoffs at Novanta and Samsung Electronics. As part of moving its US headquarters to Texas, Samsung Electronics cut off hundreds of jobs in New Jersey, mostly in sales and marketing. Within the Information sector, Microsoft and EchoStar stand out as the two main companies driving the mass layoffs. Microsoft cut off 4800 jobs in July as it is overhauling its Xbox gaming business.
Hiring & attrition
At the national level, both hiring and attrition remain on a downward trend, underpinning the current low-hire, low-fire environment.
In July, the US hiring rate ticked down 0.3 percentage points, from 21.0% to 20.6%. The decline in hiring was driven by sharper slowdowns in Education Services, Transportation & Warehousing, and Public Administration, which fell by 2.1pp, 1.1pp, and 0.8pp, respectively.
While hiring remains weak, so does the national rate of attrition, which was unchanged from June to July at 20.0%. The largest increase in attrition was seen in the Educational Services Industry, while the biggest decline was in Transportation & Warehousing.
Job postings
Active job postings ticked up in July, with the total number of active, advertised positions rising 0.3% month over month. The majority of US industries saw modest increases in job posting activity, with the highest gains seen in Agriculture, Public Administration, Other Services, and Professional & Business Services.
In absolute terms, the largest job posting gains came from Professional & Business Services and Public Administration, which saw increases of 71k and 18.7k active postings. In Professional & Business Services gains were led by notable staffing firms, while the Federal Government led increased recruiting in the public sector. On the other hand, Leisure & Hospitality saw the largest decrease in recruiting, led by Domino's Pizza and Yum! Brands, which recently spun off Pizza Hut.
Salaries from new job openings
Salaries from new job postings went up in July, increasing by 2% from June to July. Sectors driving the increase were Professional and Business Services, Public Administration and Leisure and Hospitality.
H&R Block and Kiewit for Professional and Business Services and the states of Delaware and Arizona for Public Administration were among the employers with the largest month-over-month increases in salaries from new job postings. Mining and Oil Extraction saw the biggest declines in salaries from job postings. Vulcan Materials and Chevron were among the employers with the biggest declines in salaries for Mining and Oil Extraction.
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