June 2015: unemployment rate down to 5.3 percent for first time in years

release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has dropped 0.2 points down to 5.3 percent, the lowest the unemployment rate has been since April 2008. Last month, 223,000 new non-farming jobs were created, dropping the number of unemployed people down to 8.3 million. The majority of the new positions were available in financial industries, health care, transportation, and professional and business services. The number of part-time workers, discouraged workers, and those marginally attached to the labor force all saw little change in June. Professional and business services saw 64,000 new jobs, mainly in temporary help (20,000 jobs). The health care industry also saw above-average gains (compared to the previous 12 months) with 40,000 new jobs last month. Twenty-three thousand of those jobs were in ambulatory care services, and 11,000 jobs were added for hospital workers. Food services added 30,000 new jobs, and retail trade saw 33,000 new jobs, mostly in general retail stores. The financial sector increased by 20,000 jobs (with 9,000 of them insurance-related positions). Despite June’s gains in some financial fields, 6,000 jobs were lost in commercial banking employment. The mining industry continued to see job losses (of 4,000 support jobs) in June. That industry has seen losses of more than 71,000 jobs since December 2014. Construction, manufacturing, trade and government saw little change from previous months.]]>