U.S. Economy Adds 213,000 Jobs in June, Labor Force Expands

The U.S. economy added 213,000 jobs in June and the civilian labor force grew by 601,000, causing the unemployment rate to rise 0.2% to 4.0%. But the unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans fell to the lowest ever recorded, 4.6%.

The labor force participation rate also rose by 0.2 percentage points to 62.9.

“Six-hundred thousand people re-entering the workforce is very positive. It shows that people who had previously ‘stopped looking’ have been paying attention to the stories of how tight the job market is and that there are more job openings than people unemployed,” Timothy Anderson, analyst at TJM Investments said.

“The June jobs report shows these people have confidence of finding a job, which is very consistent with recent surveys showing sharply increasing optimism among those in the lower income bracket.”

With the number of people looking for work sharply increasing, wage pressure eased back for the month.

Manufacturing added a very solid 36,000 jobs, with most coming from durable goods. Construction continued the upward trend up in June (+13,000) and has increased by 282,000 over the year.

“The monthly gain in manufacturing more than doubled the forecast,” Mr. Anderson added. “The total number of people employed in manufacturing is the highest its been in 9 1/2 years.”

Mining employment also continued on an upward trend in June (+5,000). The industry has added 95,000 jobs since its low point in October 2016.

Employment in health care rose by 25,000 in June and has increased by 309,000 over the year. Hospitals added 11,000 jobs over the month, and employment in ambulatory health care services continued to trend up (+14,000)

In June, average hourly earnings for private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents to $26.98. For the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 72 cents, or 2.7%. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 4 cents to $22.62 in June.

The number of jobs created for April was revised up from +159,000 to +175,000, and May was revised up from +223,000 to +244,000. With these revisions, employment gains in April and May combined were 37,000 more than previously reported.

Nonfarm payrolls have increased 3,216,000 since President Donald J. Trump took office.