Quick Facts:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528,000 in June.
- The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent.
- Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care.
- The number of unemployed persons edged down to 5.7 million.
- Both total nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate have returned to their February 2020 pre-pandemic levels, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
- The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) decreased by 269,000 in July to 1.1 million.
Looking Forward:
- U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July as the labor market now has recovered all 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic and continued to defy soaring inflation, rising interest rates and a slowing economy.
- Last week, however, initial jobless claims, a gauge of layoffs, rose to the highest level since November based on a four-week moving average. Tech giants such as Oracle, Amazon, Netflix and Robinhood have all announced significant job cuts recently.
- Regardless of whether a recession is eventually declared, the latest economic figures show that output is weakening much faster than the job market. The disconnect between the growing job market and otherwise faltering economy boils down to one key point: Despite slowing consumer demand, the supply of workers to make goods and provide services has been considerably below companies’ needs.
- Americans still aren’t staying in their jobs, even as fears of a recession settle over the economy. In June, 4.2 million people quit their jobs, according to new data out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, hiring wasn’t slowing down: 6.4 million Americans were hired in June, and the layoff rate stayed low at 0.9%. That means that, even as some do see layoffs and hiring slowdowns, workers for the most part aren’t worried about walking away from their jobs.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
