The numbers are a bit of a moving target, but the U.S. economy still put together another strong month of job-growth.
According to statistics released by the Labor Department, American employers added 206,000 jobs in June, continuing a recent streak of strong performances.
June’s totals were short of the 218,000 jobs posted in May. Despite that, the unemployment rate rose slightly, edging up to 4.1% from May’s 4%.
And the Labor Department sharply revised down its estimate of job growth for April and May by a combined 111,000.
According to an Associated Press report, economists have repeatedly predicted the job market would lose momentum in the face of high interest rates engineered by the Fed, only to see the hiring gains show unexpected strength.
Still, the AP reported, there are signs of an economic slowdown in the face of the Federal Reserve’s series of interest rate hikes. The U.S. gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — grew at an annual pace of 1.4% from January through March, the slowest quarterly pace in nearly two years.
Consumer spending rose at a 1.5% pace last quarter after growing more than 3% in each of the previous two quarters. In addition, the number of advertised job openings has declined steadily since peaking at a record 12.2 million in March 2022.
Meanwhile, inflation has steadily declined from a 9.1% peak in 2022 to 3.3%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that, while inflation is moving toward the Fed’s 2% target level, more progress would be needed before the policymakers would cut rates.
