The American economy added 287,000 new jobs last month, 90,000 of which were needed to keep up with population growth. This means that net job growth clocked in at a very robust 197,000 jobs. This makes up for May’s miserable jobs report, and suggests that economic growth is still chugging along at decent rate. The labor force expanded considerably in June and the number of unemployed also went up, producing a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent. This may be an artifact of graduating college students who haven’t yet found work.
Hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees were up at an annual rate of about 2.3 percent compared to last month, a bit higher than the inflation rate. That’s not great, but at least it’s progress.
Overall, this jobs report was a relief. Employment growth over the past six months hasn’t been great, but at least it hasn’t been driven into a ditch.
