U.S. government bonds held onto overnight gains Friday after Labor Department data showed the unemployment rate rising despite the labor market adding the most jobs in 10 months.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note finished Friday’s session at 1.434%, according to Tradeweb, down from 1.479% at Thursday’s close. The 30-year bond yield fell to 2.050% from 2.086% Thursday.
Long-term Treasury yields, which fall when bond prices rise, declined overnight, then were choppy after data showed that U.S. employers added a seasonally adjusted 850,000 jobs in June.
That was the highest number since August 2020 and beat the 706,000 estimate from economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The unemployment rate rose to 5.9% from 5.8%, exceeding economists’ expectations of a 5.6% rate.
Some analysts and investors said that the number of jobs added was encouraging but not an overwhelming sign that the labor market is healing at an accelerating pace. The U.S. still has 6.8 million fewer jobs than in February 2020, before the pandemic shut down most of the economy. Labor force participation, or the share of adults working or looking for work, remains below pre-pandemic levels, prompting some companies to raise wages in order to fill roles.
