Labor Dept: 222,000 Jobs Created in June, Higher than Expected

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said that 222,000 new positions were created in June, beating the economists’ prediction of 179,000 jobs.

This was the second biggest monthly increase of new jobs, behind February.

“The economy has created an average of 194,000 jobs over the past three months. That compares favorably to a monthly average of 166,000 during the first quarter, and a pace of 187,000 for all of last year,” writes The Wall Street Journal.

Health care was the sector with the most job growth, with 37,000 new positions added. Professional and business services jobs were close behind with a 35,000 spike. Wall Street jobs saw a 17,000 increase and the mining industry saw 8,000 new jobs created. 

However, the employment rate stayed at a round 4.4.%. 

“The higher unemployment rate reflects more Americans entering the labor force in June, but not all of them finding jobs. Federal Reserve officials project the jobless rate will average 4.5% to 4.8% over the long run. The current level of unemployment suggests the economy is at or very near to full employment, or the point at which nearly all job seekers have found work,” writes The Wall Street Journal.

The average hourly earnings increased by 4 cents, which experts say was a result of last year’s soft economic growth. 

“Wage inflation was never going to be a 2017 event. You get paid this year based on how your firm did last year and last year was a slow year for GDP and, more importantly, earnings,” said Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard to Reuters. “Wages are accelerating in some industries, just not enough industries to push up the averages.”

June’s numbers are much more of an improvement from May, where the payrolls saw a small increase of 152,000. 

“The strong job growth in June and the upward revisions for May and April suggest that the concerns about a major slowdown in job growth were premature,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America at The Conference Board to CNBC. 

Most experts see the June economy findings as a good sign of what is to come. 

The Labor Department report “is another illustration that the real economy is in good health,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics to CNBC. “The only disappointment is that wage growth still shows few signs of accelerating.”

Author’s note: More jobs were created than expected last month, which means that people who had dropped from the workforce during the Obama administration are now looking for jobs. Not to mention, wages are going up. It’s slow and steady, but it’s an increase. With Trump, who is a businessmen first and foremost, this is what we were hoping to see. We needed someone in office to rejuvenate the economy and this looks like just the beginning.