Employment Situation Heats Up in June

July 6, 2018 by Chris Lange

The U.S. Department of Labor released its Employment Situation numbers for the month of June early on Friday. The Bloomberg consensus estimate was 190,000 nonfarm payrolls, but it actually came in higher at 213,000. The unemployment rate came in a little higher at 4.0%, just above the expected 3.8%.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.7%), adult women (3.7%) and Asians (3.2%) increased in June. The jobless rate for teenagers (12.6%), whites (3.5%), blacks (6.5%) and Hispanics (4.6%) showed little or no change month over month.

Also in June, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs increased by 211,000 to 3.1 million, and the number of reentrants to the labor force rose by 204,000 to 2.1 million.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 213,000 in June and has grown by 2.4 million over the past 12 months. Over the month, job gains occurred in professional and business services (+50,000), manufacturing (+36,000) and health care (+25,000), while employment in retail trade declined (−22,000).

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.5 hours in June. The average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by four cents to $22.62.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised up from 159,000 to 175,000, and the change for May was revised from a gain of 223,000 to 244,000. With these revisions, employment gains in April and May combined were 37,000 more than previously reported. After revisions, job gains have averaged 211,000 per month over the past three months.

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)

Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.

Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.

Click here now to get started.