Economy

Jobs Report: U.S. Economy Adds 224K Jobs in June, Beating Forecast

Wages Continued to Exceed 3% for 11th Straight Month

Series with themes reflecting a certain billionaire politician who won the 2016 presidential election touting a very strong labor market. (Photo: AdobeStock)

The U.S. economy added 224,000 jobs, the unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.7% and wages rose solidly, according to the jobs report for June. The unemployment rate for Asian Americans fell to a new record low at 2.1%.

Employment Situation (June)	Prior	Consensus	Consensus Range	Result
Nonfarm Payrolls – M/M ∆	75,000	165,000	135,000 to 205,000	224,000
Unemployment – Rate	3.6%	3.6%	3.5% to 3.8%	3.7%
Private Payrolls – M/M ∆	90,000	149,000	135,000 to 180,000	191,000
Manufacturing Payrolls – M/M ∆	3,000	2,000	-2,000 to 6,000	17,000
Labor Force Participation – Rate	62.8%	62.8%	62.7% to 63.0%	62.9%
Average Hourly Earnings – M/M ∆	0.2%	0.3%	0.2% to 0.4%	0.2%
Average Hourly Earnings – Y/Y ∆	3.1%	3.2%	3.1% to 3.3%	3.1%
Average Workweek – All	34.4 hrs	34.5 hrs	34.4 hrs to 34.5 hrs	34.4 hrs

The labor force participation rate (chart) ticked slightly higher from 62.8% to 62.9%, while the employment-population ratio was 60.6% for the fourth month in a row.

Manufacturing employment kicked back into gear, gaining +17,000 . in June after 4 months of little change. Manufacturing employment has averaged 8,000 per month, compared with an average of 22,000 in 2018.

Construction employment continued a solid upward trend, adding 21,000 in June. That’s on par with the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months.

In June, wages, or average hourly earnings (AHEs), for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents to $27.90. That’s after a 9-cent gain in May.

Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings (chart) have increased by 3.1%. Wage growth has exceeded 3% for the 11th straight month.

Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 4 cents to $23.43 in June.

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PPD Business Staff

PPD Business, the economy-reporting arm of People's Pundit Daily, is "making sense of current events." We are a no-holds barred, news reporting pundit of, by, and for the people.