The number of unemployed in the U.S. continues to drop. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Employment Situation Summary, the total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528,000 in July, while the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 percent. 

Job gains were seen across the board with the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and health care seeing the largest gains. These numbers reflect a return to pre-pandemic levels after two years of job losses. 

The number of unemployed people in the U.S. now sits at 5.7 million, with the highest unemployment rates among women and Caucasians at 3.1 percent respectively. The jobless rate on the other hand sits at 3.2 percent for adult men, 11 percent among teenagers and 6.0 among African Americans. 

The number of persons on temporary layoff, sat at 791,000 in July, while the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons rose by 303,000 to 3.9 million in July. In its Summary, the Bureau noted this rise reflected an increase in the number of persons whose hours were cut due to slack work or business conditions. 

The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was 5.9 million in July. The number of Americans choosing to work remotely continues to grow with numbers reaching 7.1 percent in July. Meanwhile in the same month, 2.2 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic.