The headline jobs number in the June employment report was above expectations and April and May payrolls were revised up by 16,000 combined. The participation rate decreased, the employment population ratio was unchanged, and the unemployment rate was decreased to 4.1%.
NOTE: State and local government hiring was reported at 63.5 thousand in June (seasonally adjusted). On a Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) basis, 542.4 thousand education jobs lost. This happens every June. However, this year fewer jobs were lost than expected resulting in the large SA gain. It is possible this is just a timing issue and more than expected educators will be let go in July.
Earlier:
June Employment Report: 147 thousand Jobs, 4.1% Unemployment Rate
Prime (25 to 54 Years Old) Participation

Since the overall participation rate is impacted by both cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging population, younger people staying in school) reasons, here is the employment-population ratio for the key working age group: 25 to 54 years old.
The 25 to 54 years old participation rate increased in June to 83.5% from 83.4% in May.
The 25 to 54 employment population ratio increased to 80.7% from 80.5% the previous month.
Both are down slightly from the recent peaks, but still near the highest level this millennium.
Average Hourly Wages

The graph shows the nominal year-over-year change in "Average Hourly Earnings" for all private employees from the Current Employment Statistics (CES).
There was a huge increase at the beginning of the pandemic as lower paid employees were let go, and then the pandemic related spike reversed a year later.
Wage growth has trended down after peaking at 5.9% YoY in March 2022 and was at 3.7% YoY in June.
Part Time for Economic Reasons

From the BLS
report:
"The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.5 million, changed little
in June. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part
time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs."
The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in June to 4.47 million from 4.62 million in May. This is above the pre-pandemic levels.
These workers are included in the
alternate measure of labor underutilization (U-6) that decreased to 7.7% from 7.8% in the previous month. This is down from the record high in April 2020 of 22.9% and up from the lowest level on record (seasonally adjusted) in December 2022 (6.6%). (This series started in 1994). This measure is above the 7.0% level in February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
Unemployed over 26 Weeks

This graph shows the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more.
According to the BLS, there are 1.65 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and still want a job, up from 1.46 million the previous month.
This is down from post-pandemic high of 4.171 million, and up from the recent low of 1.056 million.
This is above pre-pandemic levels.
Job StreakThrough June 2025, the employment report indicated positive job growth for 54 consecutive months, putting the current streak in 2nd place of the longest job streaks in US history (since 1939).
Headline Jobs, Top 10 Streaks
Year EndedStreak, Months
12020113
2Current, N/A541
3199048
4200746
5197945
6 tie194333
6 tie198633
6 tie200033
9196729
10199525
1Currrent Streak
Summary:
The headline jobs number in the May employment report was above expectations and April and May payrolls were revised up by 16,000 combined. The participation rate decreased, the employment population ratio was unchanged, and the unemployment rate was decreased to 4.1%.
This was a solid employment report; however, a surprising number of state and local education employees were hired in June (63.5 thousand).
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