The U.S. economy added 224,000 jobs in June, heavily beating expectations and creating a cautious optimism among analysts wary of the dismal growth seen in May.
The unemployment rate remained largely unchanged at 3.7 percent — or 6 million people — in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced Friday in its monthly jobs report.
“The number did beat expections but ... it was pretty abysmal a month ago, and that was revised downward,” Mitch Roschelle, a partner at PwC, told Cheddar.
In Friday’s report, the BLS amended its May figures from 75,000 to just 72,000 jobs added. June’s employment growth was, however, way above the average of 172,000 per month in 2019 so far. The average monthly gain for 2018 was 223,000 jobs.
The industries with the largest gains were professional and business services and health care, which added more than 51,000 and 35,000 jobs in June respectively. The transportation and warehousing sector added roughly 24,000 jobs.
"JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!" President Donald Trump tweeted Friday morning.
<i>U.S. Labor Department</i>
In June, average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents and have increased by 3.1 percent over the past 12 months.
The report indicates “that the labor market remains a strength of the economy” and “should ease some of the pressure that the Fed faces to cut rates,” Doug Duncan, the senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae, said in a statement to Cheddar.
The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates at its Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this month in an effort to hinder a potential downturn in the economy, which is currently experiencing its longest expansion on record.
“There is really nothing out there short of some big black swan event that will slow down this economy,” Roschelle said, noting, however, that a shrinking of the global economy would threaten domestic growth.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
