June Jobs Report Shows an 850,000 Gain, Better Than Expected

Retailers, day care providers and warehouses posted gains as well. Temporary jobs, which can be a bellwether for the broader labor market, also grew, partly reversing unexpected declines in the previous two months.

Overall payroll gains in April and May fell below expectations and fueled worries that the labor market’s recovery was disappointingly slow. Revisions for those months, included in the report on Friday, added only 15,000 to previously reported totals.

The stronger-than-expected increases for June, though, helped blunt some of the worries about the pace of hiring and gave President Biden the opportunity to claim credit for the progress. “Our economy is on the move,” he said in remarks from the White House.

The June figures are unlikely to allay the concerns of small-business owners and managers who complain about the difficulty finding workers. Nearly half report that they cannot fill openings, according to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

The competition for workers has pushed up wages. Average hourly earnings climbed 3.6 percent in the year through June and 0.3 percent over the month. Low-wage workers seem to be the biggest beneficiaries of the bump in pay.

Ms. Frankiewicz of ManpowerGroup said the rise of “superemployers” like Amazon and Walmart was making it even more difficult for small and medium-size businesses to attract workers. In the summer of 2019, the top 25 employers had 10 percent of the open jobs, she said, while “today 10 employers do.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/business/economy/june-2021-jobs-report.html