Employers in the United States added 147,000 workers to their payrolls in June, the Department of Labor said Thursday, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.1 percent, defying predictions of labor market sluggishness following the implementation of President Trump’s tariffs.
Economists had been expecting 110,000 jobs and an unemployment rate ticking up to 4.3 percent.
The April jobs report was revised up by 11,000, from a gain of 147,000 to 158,000. May was revised up by 5,000 to 144,000. Combined, the revisions added 16,000 jobs to the April and May reports.
Wage gains continued in June. Average hourly earnings rose by 0.2 percent in the month and are up 3.7 percent from a year ago, well above the rate of inflation. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 0.3 percent.
The private sector added 74,000 and the public sector added 73,000. The federal government’s payroll continued to shrink, falling by 7,000 in June.
Construction added 15,000 jobs while manufacturing contracted by 7,000. The services sector added 68,000, led by a gain of 58,600 in healthcare and social assistance. Leisure and hospitality added 20,000. There were small gains in retail trade, information technology, financial services, and utilities.
The private sector gains were a bit weaker than expected, especially after so-called government-adjacent jobs in education, healthcare, and social services are excluded.
