The U.S. economy added 943,000 new jobs during the month of July, and the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent, according to new survey data published Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of unemployed Americans declined by 782,000 to 8.7 million. That figure is "down considerably" from the number of people who were unemployed at the height of the pandemic last spring, but remains "well above" the number of Americans who were unemployed before the pandemic (5.7 million), according to the Bureau. Roughly 5.2 million Americans reported that they could not work because "their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic," down from 6.2 million the month prior.