US employers recorded another healthy month of hiring in June, creating 206,000 jobs and once again demonstrating the US economy’s ability to withstand continually high interest rates.
Job growth last month marked a decline from the 218,000 in May. But it was still a strong gain, reflecting the resilience of the consumer-driven US economy, which is slowing but still growing steadily.
Friday’s report from the Department of Labor also showed that the unemployment rate rose from 4% to a still-low 4.1%. And the department drastically revised down its job growth estimate for April and May, by a combined total of 111,000.
The state of the economy weighs heavily on voters’ minds as the presidential campaign intensifies. Despite consistent hiring, relatively few layoffs and the gradual cooling of inflation, many Americans have been exasperated by still-high prices and blame President Joe Biden.
Economists have repeatedly predicted that the labor market would lose momentum in the face of high interest rates engineered by the Fed, only to see hiring gains demonstrate unexpected strength. Still, there are signs of an economic slowdown given the series of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. US gross domestic product – the total production of goods and services – grew at a lethargic annual rate of 1.4% from January to March, the slowest quarterly pace in almost two years.
