Hiring slowed only slightly last month, and the U.S. job market remains resilient despite high inflation and waning economic growth. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 372,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.6%, while the labor force shrank by 353,000 people, reports NPR.
Hiring slipped only slightly in June, with no sign of a looming recession (NPR)
Excerpt from NPR: Job gains have slowed since the first third of the year, when employers were adding nearly 500,000 jobs per month on average. But economists say a slowdown isn't surprising, now that the U.S. has replaced most of the jobs lost during the pandemic downturn two years ago. Employment at private-sector businesses is higher now than it was in February of 2020, while government employment still lags. "It shouldn't be seen as a terrible thing or as a huge slowdown or an impending recession," said Julia Pollak, chief economist for the job-search website ZipRecruiter. She noted that hiring is still significantly stronger than in 2019, when employers were adding an average of 164,000 jobs each month.
According to The Washington Post, U.S. employers remained eager to hire in May, adding fuel to a red-hot labor market that continues to serve as a bulwark against growing recession fears. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in that month, down from a peak of 11.8 million in March and 11.4 million in April but still well above pre-pandemic levels, according to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Labor market remains red hot amid growing recession fears (The Washington Post)
Excerpt from The Washington Post: Roughly 4.3 million Americans quit or changed jobs in May, reflecting a job market where workers continue to have the upper hand. Overall hiring, meanwhile, slowed slightly, with businesses adding 6.5 million workers in May, compared with 6.6 million a month earlier. Layoffs, meanwhile, remained near record lows. "This is not what a recession looks like," said Nick Bunker, an economist at the jobs site Indeed. "Demand for workers might be stagnating, but it’s still at very elevated levels. The labor market is not signaling a recession."
The June jobs report showed that rising interest rates and high inflation are so far not affecting hiring, which remains strong. The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June, well above the 250,000 expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
June Jobs Report Live: U.S. Economy Adds 372,000 Jobs; Unemployment Rate Holds at 3.6% (The Wall Street Journal)
Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal: Still, the robust job report may heighten fears about inflation, with companies raising wages as they compete for a limited pool of workers. Some analysts said that the strong jobs report increased chances that the Fed would proceed with a .75-percentage-point rate increase at its next meeting. "The tremendous momentum in the economy to me suggests that we can move at 75 basis points at the next meeting and not see a lot of protracted damage to the broader economy," said Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic.
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