Job growth has hit more than 200,000 each month for the past six months, the first time that mark has been reached since 1997.

The U.S. added 209,000 jobs in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2%. Meanwhile, last month's report was revised up to 298,000 from 288,000, and May was revised up to 229,000 from 224,000.



"Quite a milestone today in terms of the number of nonfarm payroll jobs the economy is creating. Six months in a row of big 200K or more monthly numbers. The labor market is strong," said Chris Rupkey, the chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Here are the last six months of job gains, according to the latest BLS revisions:

• July: 209,000

• June: 298,000

• May: 229,000

• April: 304,000

• March: 203,000

• February: 222,000

Overall, analysts viewed the report as a good-but-not-great report. Economists had been expecting job growth of about 230,000, with unemployment projected to remain steady at 6.1%.

But the report confirmed another steady month of growth. Stocks are up, a day after huge losses wiped out all of the year's gains.

The labor force participation rate in July increased to 62.9% from 62.8%, where it had been for the last three months. The average hours worked in July held steady at 34.5 hours per week, and average hourly earnings increased 2% year-over-year.

Last month, the U.S. also set a new record for consecutive months of private-sector job growth, a streak that continued in July.

"Net net, this is a solid report that shows the economy is moving forward at a fast enough rate to put people back to work," Rupkey said. "This is not an economy still in the wake of financial crisis and recession. Six months in a row all 200K and above — the economy did not show that sort of consistency even during the housing bubble economy years 2004, 2005, and 2006."

Here's a chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve illustrating the recent spike in job growth:



