Economy Jobs

June Jobs Report Exceeds Expectations

The June jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday exceeded expectations, and previous estimates for the months of April and May were also revised upward.

Payrolls rose by 195,000 workers for a second month, the Labor Department reported today in Washington, exceeding the 165,000 gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The jobless rate stayed at 7.6 percent, close to a four-year low. [...]

Revisions added 70,000 jobs to the employment counts in April and May. Gains in private employment overcame declines in government payrolls. Private payrolls increased 202,000 in June after a 207,000 gain the prior month.

Retailers, professional and business services, health care, and leisure and hospitality businesses led the gains in June.

The news isn’t all roses, however. The underemployment rate also rose to 14.3 percent, a four month high, indicating that an unacceptably high number of people are still struggling to find full-time employment.