We are officially at the mid-point of the year, and the labor market is still holding up strong. In June 2018, the U.S. added 213,000 jobs, beating economists projections of 195,000 jobs. This is largely the result of the increase in the labor force participation rate. 601,000 workers re-entered the workforce, increasing the labor force participation rate to 62.9%. However, there has been no sign of any trend thus far this year.
Revised jobs for April and May 2018
The Bureau also reported revised job gains for April and May of this year. April’s gains increased from 159,000 added jobs to 175,000 jobs and May’s jobs improved from 223,000 jobs added to 244,000. This is a net increase of 37,000 jobs for April and May combined. Over the past three months, job gains averaged a whopping 211,000 jobs.
Despite the strong job growth, the national unemployment rate slightly edged up to 4.0%. In the month of June, the number of unemployed persons increased by 499,000 people for a total of 6.6 million. A year ago to the date, the unemployment rate was at 4.3% with the number of unemployed Americans totaling 7.0 million.
Average hourly earnings increase
Average hourly earnings also increased by $0.05 or an average $26.98. Over the last year, average hourly earnings have increased by $0.72 or 2.7%.
Employment numbers by industry
Employment in the Professional & Business Services industry led the way in June with 50,000 added jobs.Over the last year, Professional & Business Services added a total of 521,000 jobs.
Manufacturing came in second with an added 36,000 jobs. Over the last year, the manufacturing industry added 285,000 jobs. Healthcare followed closely with 25,000 jobs added. Hospitals added 11,000 jobs and ambulatory services added 14,000. Construction added another 13,000 jobs and has gained a total of 282,000 jobs over the last 12 months.
Mining gained another 5,000 jobs, totaling gains of 95,000 jobs since a slump in October 2016. The Retail industry saw a major loss of 22,000 jobs for the month. This largely offsets the 25,000 jobs gained in May 2018.
The employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and government showed little to no change over the month.
Check out our infographic below for more stats from the June 2018 Jobs Report:
