June 2016 employment: US adds 287,000 jobs

The Employment Situation’ news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate also rose to 4.9 percent. Job growth occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care and social assistance, and financial activities. Employment also increased in information, mostly reflecting the return of workers from a strike. The unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point to 4.9 percent in June, and the number of unemployed persons increased by 347,000 to 7.8 million. These increases largely offset declines in May and brought both measures back in line with levels that had prevailed from August 2015 to April. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult women (4.5 percent) and Whites (4.4 percent) rose in June. The rates for adult men (4.5 percent), teenagers (16.0 percent), Blacks (8.6 percent), Asians (3.5 percent), and Hispanics (5.8 percent) showed little or no change. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised from 123,000 to 144,000, and the change for May was revised from 38,000 to 11,000. With these  revisions, employment gains in April and May combined were 6,000 less, on net, than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 147,000 per month.]]>