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The month of July typically marks the summertime peak in youth employment. The employment–population ratio, which is the percentage of the population that is currently working, was 36.5 percent for teens ages 16 to 19 in July 2026, compared with 67.5 percent for young adults ages 20 to 24. The gap in the employment–population ratio between the two age groups has been about 30 percentage points since the late 2000s.

In July 2026, unemployment rates were lower than a month earlier in 10 states and stable in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Twelve states had jobless rate increases from a year earlier, 10 states and the District had decreases, and 28 states had little change. The national unemployment rate, 4.1 percent, changed little both over the month and over the year.

In 2025, annual average hires rates averaged 4.0 percent or higher in 6 states: Alaska (5.2 percent), Montana (4.8 percent), Wyoming (4.5 percent), Idaho (4.2 percent), and Indiana and South Carolina (4.0 percent each). Among these six states, annual hires levels ranged from 158,000 in Wyoming to 1,584,000 in Indiana. Nationally, there were 62,972,000 hires in 2025, and the U.S. annual average hires rate was 3.3 percent.

Import prices increased 5.9 percent from July 2025 to July 2026. Prices for fuel imports increased 25.2 percent due in part to increases in import prices for petroleum and petroleum products (26.3 percent) and natural gas (74.3 percent).