Friday, July 7, 2017

U.S. Labor Market Roars Back, Adding 222,000 Jobs in June

The Labor Department released the June hiring and unemployment figures on Friday morning. This is the latest official snapshot of the state of the American economy.

The Numbers

• 222,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street economists had expected employment gains of 175,000.

• The unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. May’s jobless rate was 4.3 percent.

• The average hourly wage grew by 2.5 percent from a year earlier.

• The labor-force participation rate inched up to 62.8 percent, from 62.7 percent.

The Takeaway

The labor market roared back in June, with a hefty monthly gain in jobs, and revisions that added 47,000 more jobs to April and May than previously reported. Over the past three months, job gains have averaged 194,000 a month. Although the unemployment rate ticked up from the previous month, it did so because more people joined the work force.

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