By Angelo Young - U.S. hiring picked up the pace last month, adding more jobs to an economy than expected.
The monthly snapshot of the U.S. job market released by the Department of Labor of Friday was cause for modest celebration: 288,000 more jobs were added to the economy in June droping the unemployment rate by a fifth of a percentage point to 6.1 percent. Data for April and May was revised to show 29,000 more jobs were created than previously reported.
Wall Street analysts expected 215,000 jobs last month with the unemployment rate at 6.3 percent, the same level as May. June marks the fifth consecutive month with job gains above 200,000, which hasn’t happened since the second half of 1999. Economists typically estimate that the U.S. must create about 200,000 jobs a month to absorb new working-age Americans; anything above that helps extend jobs to the existing unemployed.
In May, the economy recovered the 8.7 million jobs lost in the 2007-2009 Great Recession but the nation has a long way to go to meet the demands of a workforce that has grown larger in the past five years. But the jobs pay less; wage growth is barely keeping up with inflation. Average hourly earnings increased by 6 cents to $24.45 in June. Wages have risen 2 percent over the past 12 months, barely keeping up with inflation.
In May, the economy recovered the 8.7 million jobs lost in the 2007-2009 Great Recession but the nation has a long way to go to meet the demands of a workforce that has grown larger in the past five years. But the jobs pay less; wage growth is barely keeping up with inflation. Average hourly earnings increased by 6 cents to $24.45 in June. Wages have risen 2 percent over the past 12 months, barely keeping up with inflation.
The number of long-term unemployed, defined as anyone who has been out of work for at least six month, declined by 293,000, to 3.1 million. They now account for just under a third of all job seekers.
But the labor force participation rate, defined as Americans who are employed or actively seeking jobs, was unchanged for the third consecutive month, at 62.8 percent, a low unseen since the Carter administration.
Employment growth was strongest in business and professional services, retail, food establishments and health care.
Manufacturing employment added a tepid 16,000 jobs in June, fuelled largely by the ongoing rebound in the automotive sector. Construction jobs remained flat.
The average workweek held steady for the fourth consecutive month at 34.5 hours.