Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press
under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that
the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Statement of
William W. Beach
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Friday, July 5, 2019
Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 in June,
and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7 percent.
Over the month, notable job gains occurred in professional and
business services, in health care, and in transportation and
warehousing.
Incorporating revisions for April and May, which decreased
employment by 11,000, monthly job gains averaged 172,000 in the
first half of 2019. This is below the average monthly job gain
of 223,000 for 2018.
In June, professional and business services added 51,000
jobs, following little employment change in May (+24,000). Thus
far in 2019, employment growth in professional and business
services has averaged 35,000 per month, compared with an average
of 47,000 per month in 2018.
Health care employment increased by 35,000 in June,
including gains in ambulatory health care services (+19,000) and
hospitals (+11,000). Over the past 12 months, health care has
added 403,000 jobs.
Employment in transportation and warehousing expanded by
24,000 in June, with gains in couriers and messengers (+7,000)
and air transportation (+3,000). Overall, transportation and
warehousing has added 158,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
Construction employment continued to trend up in June
(+21,000). Over the past 12 months, construction employment has
increased by 224,000.
In June, employment in manufacturing edged up (+17,000),
following little change in recent months. Job gains occurred in
computer and electronic products (+7,000) and in plastics and
rubber products (+4,000) in June. So far in 2019, employment
growth in manufacturing has averaged 8,000 per month, compared
with 22,000 per month in 2018.
Employment showed little change over the month in other
major industries--including mining, wholesale trade, retail
trade, information, financial activities, leisure and
hospitality, and government.
Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm
payrolls rose by 6 cents in June to $27.90, following a 9-cent
gain in May. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings
have risen by 3.1 percent; the over-the-year percent change has
been 3.0 percent or above for 11 consecutive months. From May
2018 to May 2019, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.8 percent (on a seasonally
adjusted basis).
Turning to measures from the survey of households, both the
unemployment rate, at 3.7 percent, and the number of unemployed
people, at 6.0 million, were little changed in June.
Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for
work for 27 weeks or more was little changed in June, at 1.4
million. These long-term unemployed accounted for 23.7 percent
of the unemployed.
The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, was
about unchanged in June. The employment-population ratio was
60.6 percent for the fourth month in a row.
In June, 4.3 million people were working part time for
economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time
workers), essentially unchanged from the previous month.
Among those neither working nor looking for work in June,
1.6 million were considered marginally attached to the labor
force, little changed from a year earlier. (People who are
marginally attached to the labor force had not looked for work
in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were
available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12
months.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally
attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered
425,000 in June, also little changed from a year earlier.
In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000
in June, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7
percent.
