The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Released the June 2017 Employment Numbers
July 10, 2017
SVN Imbrie Realty Staff
On Friday, July 7, 2017, The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the June 2017 employment numbers. The report indicated that U.S. economy added 222,000 jobs in June, marking the 81st consecutive month of job gains.
The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4%, hovering just above its lowest level since 2001. However, it is a stark contrast from the 10% unemployment rate shortly after the 2008 – 2009 Great Recession.
It is believed that unemployment rose due to more people jumping back into the job market to look for work. The number of Americans who work part-time but want a full-time job rose a notch to 5.3 million in June. Underemployment, which measures people who want to be working full-time but are not, rose to 8.6% in June from 8.4% in May. It's still far lower than in prior reports but it's never a good sign to see that measure tick up.
​
One bright note from the report indicated that women are coming back to the job market. Among women between ages 25 and 54 -- "prime age" workers -- participation has risen over the last two years. In June, their participation rate hit 75%, up from 73.3% in early 2015.
Overall, the strong job gains in June reflect a healthy labor market as well as high
confidence in the country’s economic direction, which has led the Feds to begin raising interest rates for businesses and consumers after years of holding them near zero to encourage investment and risk-taking.
Following the release of the job report on Friday, The Federal Reserve said that it expect the ongoing strength in the economy to warrant the continued gradual increases in the federal funds rate. The Fed has raised interest rates three times since December, pushing its benchmark rate to a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The Fed noted that policymakers still expect one more rate hike this year and another three hikes in 2018.
The Fed also said this projected pace of increases would still allow the labor market to keep strengthening and inflation to climb to the Fed's 2 percent target.
Visit: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf for the full June 2017 US Bureau of Labor Statistics report.