Economy Watch: Economy Creates 220K Jobs in June

US job growth surged more than expected in June, keeping the Federal Reserve on course for a third interest rate hike this year, despite slow wage gains. Meanwhile, an uptick in the unemployment rate-from 4.3% to 4.4%-was the result of more people looking for work.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta noted Friday that the unemployment rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point since the president took office in January.

At some point the Fake News will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with ISIS, the border & so much else!

But the ranks of the long-term unemployed edged up by 1,000 to 1.7 million.

While unemployment bumped up to 4.4% from 4.3% from May that was due to more people looking to work which is a sign of labor market confidence. That’s ahead of inflation, which is averaging about 2 percent per year, but it’s not enough to reverse years of anemic wage growth and actually represents a slowdown from late 2016. USA automakers slashed another 1,300 jobs in June as slowing sales and bloated inventories forced production cuts. The biggest victor was in health care and social assistance (59,100 jobs), followed by temporary help services (45,000).

Although more Americans joined the labor force and found jobs in the month of June, the number of unemployed also increased.

So how good is the news that we produced 220,000 new jobs in June? Employment increased in ambulatory health care services (+26,000) and hospitals (+12,000). Over the past three months, job gains have averaged 194,000 positions a month.

Social assistance employment increased by 23,000 in June.

Job gains were likely broad in June. Anything with six figures sounds like a lot, and the Obama Administration would often claim “robust” job growth of 100,000 or so in a given month. The employment-population ratio of 60.1% was also little changed in June.

The healthcare industry saw the most significant increase of new jobs at 37,000.

The report revised May’s comparatively sombre report, adding a net 47,000 jobs to the totals for that month and to April.

The retail sector is expected to have purged jobs for a fifth straight month as department store operators like J.C. Penney Co Inc, Macy’s Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch struggle against stiff competition from online retailers led by Amazon.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.33% at 0.7612 and with NZD/USD gaining 0.32% to 0.7297.

White House Press Secretary and acting Communications Director Sean Spicer retweeted an article in the Free Beacon Press that celebrated the number of jobs employed in June. In March there were reports of job cuts at Andrews Kurth Kenyon. In 2016, the labor force increased from 62.6 percent from 62.7 percent, and in 2017 the participation rate increased from 62.7 percent to 62.8 percent. Compared with last June, wages are up 2.5 percent.

While job growth picked up, economists see more room for improvement in wages and participation in the workforce, which have been slow to keep pace. It seems unlikely, though, that it will be the kind of explosion in growth that Trump supporters and the Administration have been hoping for.