Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 223,000 in June, compared to 254,000 in May. (April and May employment figures were revised down by a combined 60,000 jobs.) The unemployment rate fell to 5.3%. The Federal Reserve has placed its full-employment estimate between 5.0% and 5.2%.
Education and health services have added at least 50,000 jobs in each of the last three months. Leisure and hospitality added 22,000 jobs in June, down from 54,000 in April, while retail trade added 32,900, up from 26,400 in May.
Employment for mining and logging contracted by 3,000 jobs, a much slower rate than in the previous two months where the industry lost a total of 32,000 jobs.
The civilian labor force declined by 432,000 in June, after an increase of similar size in May. The labor force participation rate declined 0.3% to 62.6% — the lowest participation rate since April 2014.
Average hourly earnings were unchanged at $24.95. This figure increased by 2.0% over the prior twelve months.
The number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, declined by 381,000 to 2.1 million. This group accounts for 25.8% of the unemployed. The number of discouraged workers, those not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available, was 653,000 – little changed from a year ago.
Read the BLS release.
