Maryland added 53,900 jobs in July and the state’s unemployment rate dropped from 8% to 7.6%, according to preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning.

The state added 68,300 jobs in June. The national unemployment rate is at 10.2%.

MarylandReporter.com asked the state’s business leaders to assess the jobs numbers.

“There is cause for concern on these numbers,” Howard County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leonardo McClarty said in an email on Friday.” It shows that many businesses are still continuing to struggle despite our economy starting to open. In some instances, the jobs we are seeing come back were previous furloughs or a reduction of hours. In some instances, we won’t see a real uptick in job growth until there is consumer confidence that they will not get sick if they attend a public gathering.”

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