The United States added 209,000 jobs in June leaving the nation's unemployment rate down slightly at 3.6 percent according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Friday morning — a miss for the report that was estimated to show between 225,000 and 250,000 new jobs.
Payroll employment increases by 209,000 in June; unemployment rate changes little at 3.6% https://t.co/ZwrVfLviqL #JobsReport #BLSdata
— BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) July 7, 2023
Notably, June saw the smallest number of jobs added since December 2020 when the economy lost more than 100,000 jobs. Is the economy still building back better? Is this the "Bidenomics" we've been hearing so much about?
What's more, Friday's release revised April's jobs report down by 77,000 and reduced May's number by 33,000 — meaning 110,000 jobs previously heralded by Biden and Democrats were not actually added as initially reported by BLS.
The latest print of the U.S. employment situation also showed that, contrary to claims of a booming economic recovery, job growth in the U.S. has slowed not just in June but through the first six months of 2023. The monthly average increase so far this year sits at 278,000, below the 2022 monthly average of 399,000.
For the modest-by-comparison gains in June, BLS pointed to an upward trend for employment in the government, health care, social assistance, and construction sectors of the U.S. economy.
Here's where the biggest moves happened:
- Government +60,000
- Health care +41,000
- Social assistance +24,000
- Construction +23,000
- Professional and business services +21,000
- Leisure and hospitality +21,000
- Retail trade -11,000
- Transportation and warehousing -7,000
BREAKING: The U.S. added 209,000 jobs in June, less than expected. https://t.co/niFOWrfu29 pic.twitter.com/zAUBleZwBX
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 7, 2023
June's jobs report also showed six million Americans remain out of work and reported a labor force participation rate of 62.6 percent. In addition, BLS cited "an increase in the number of persons whose hours were cut due to slack work or business conditions" for a 452,000 increase in the number of people employed only part time for economic reasons who seek full-time employment. Meanwhile, an additional 5.4 million Americans who currently want a job remain out of the labor force.
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