US economy added 206,000 jobs in June, indicating a steady slowdown

Originally Published: 05 JUL 24 05:30 ET

Updated: 05 JUL 24 10:29 ET

By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — Welcome to the “steady-as-she-goes” US labor market: Halfway through 2024, job gains are cooling slightly but overall employment activity remains solidly stable.

The US economy added 206,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, easing from a downwardly revised May tally of 215,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate moved a little higher, up 0.1 percentage points to 4.1%, marking the first time since November 2021 that the jobless rate was above 4%.

That’s not too shabby at a time when interest rates are at a 23-year high and the Federal Reserve is looking for inflation and overall demand to cool before bringing down rates, said Gus Faucher, chief economist for the PNC Financial Services Group.

“We’re seeing job growth slow a bit; we’ve seen the unemployment rate tick up a little bit; we’ve seen wage growth slow a bit,” Faucher told CNN in an interview. “But those are all good news from the Fed’s perspective, should help reduce inflationary pressures coming from the labor market, and should support Fed rate cuts toward the end of this year.”

Economists were expecting employers to have added 190,000 jobs last month and for the unemployment rate to remain at 4%, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

June’s job gains were more broadly based than they have been in the past few months, but the growth was largely concentrated in two sectors: government and health care.

Government and health care again lead the way

The largest chunk of job gains occurred in the public sector, which added a net 70,000 jobs, specifically local government excluding education (up 34,100).

The health care industry added another 48,600 positions.

“This is another proof point for a steady-as-she-goes labor market where demand is shifting in some key sectors and employers and employees are staying put,” Ger Doyle, ManpowerGroup’s senior vice president, said in a statement issued Friday.

Wage growth cooled as anticipated, with average hourly earnings rising 0.3% for the month and slowing to 3.9% on an annual basis. The labor force participation rate inched up to 62.6% from 62.5% after retreating in May.

Through the first half of the year, the US has added 1.3 million jobs at an average pace of 222,000 per month, BLS data shows. April and May’s job gains were both revised lower by a combined 111,000 jobs to 108,000 for April (down 57,000) and 218,000 for May (down 54,000).

The current stretch of job gains is milder than this point last year — and hiring activity certainly has retreated from the blockbuster pace of 2021 and 2022, during the pandemic recovery. However, the labor market remains historically strong. The US just notched its 42nd consecutive month of job growth, the fifth-longest employment expansion on record.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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