The U.S. economy rebounded from a sluggish May, surpassing analyst expectations to add 287,000 nonfarm payroll positions in June, according to the latest monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released this morning. June's seasonally adjusted figure represents a spur in hiring from May, during which the downward-revised addition of just 11,000 jobs reflected a six-week strike by 35,000 Verizon employees, among other factors, and it comes as a relief to the tumbling market, putting a damper on concerns of an economic slowdown.
The national unemployment rate rose 20 basis points to 4.9 percent in June, while the labor-force participation rate roughly held at 62.7 percent. Average hourly wages for private, nonfarm workers grew by 2 cents to $25.61 during the month; average hourly earnings have increased 2.6 percent this year.
Despite the widespread gains in June's report, construction employment was unchanged following two consecutive months of contractions, although economists expect hiring in the sector to pick up soon due to favorable mortgage rates and demand for housing that will spur building activity. The manufacturing sector, which has been a soft spot in the economy lately, added 14,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the architectural and engineering services sector gained 2,400 jobs, continuing its modest growth from May.
From the BLS's historical data release: The BLS also releases detailed information subsets of key markets with a one month lag, in this case offering more information on the nuances of the architectural and engineering services category's response to the broader economy's hiring slowdown in May. The charts below highlight a monthly job-growth breakdown of the architectural services, landscape architectural services, and engineering and drafting services between May 2015 and May 2016. How these subcategories experienced June's growth will be revealed in next month's historical data release.
