CNN
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n On the face of it, the June jobs report<\/a> presents a robust picture of the US economy, with a historically low unemployment rate, a healthy number of jobs added and wage growth that outpaces inflation. But a closer look at the data reveals blemishes that could mar that rosy outlook \u2014 with President Donald Trump\u2019s economic policies as the most significant common denominator.\n <\/p>\n \n The monthly headline number of 147,000 soundly beat out expectations of 117,500 net job gains, with a healthy upswing in traditionally steady industries like local and state government, education, leisure and hospitality and health care.\n <\/p>\n \n And the unemployment rate also looks encouraging, falling to 4.1% against expectations of a rise to 4.3% for the first time since October 2021, when the country was still in the throes of pandemic upheaval.\n <\/p>\n \n Even the dreaded monthly revisions<\/a> offer promise \u2014 April and May were both revised upward, while in previous reports, prior months have tended to see (sometimes hefty) downward revisions. For example, March\u2019s stronger-than-expected 228,000-job gain was ultimately revised down by 108,000 jobs.\n <\/p>\n \n But, beyond the top-level data, things get a little murkier in the June report:\n <\/p>\n \n It is becoming harder for Americans to find work: The average duration of unemployment rose from 21.8 weeks to 23 weeks, and the share of unemployed workers who have been out of a job for 27 weeks or longer rose to 23.3%, edging closer to a three-year high. Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> \u2014 and the dizzying back and forth on implementing them and pausing them \u2014 has caused many businesses to stall<\/a> major decision-making or spending, including hiring.\n <\/p>\n \n Manufacturing employment was down: The sector saw a decline for the second-straight month, losing 7,000 jobs \u2014 a cloudy development for one of Trump\u2019s benchmark economic priorities<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Job growth was not widespread: Sectors that saw the biggest monthly gains were mostly ones that are less affected by tariffs.\n <\/p>\n \n Employees worked fewer hours: The average workweek edged down by one-tenth of an hour, to 34.2 hours, in June. This potentially signals a weakening in the demand for labor, economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research noted.\n <\/p>\n \n The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose: The jobless rate for Black workers increased in the June report, rising from 6% to 6.8%, its highest rate since January 2022. That\u2019s typically an indicator of economic weakness, but it\u2019s also a volatile number from month to month.\n <\/p>\n \n More women are leaving the workforce: The data indicates that job gains could be going mostly to men: Since January, a net 338,000 women have left the labor force, while 183,000 men have joined the labor force, the National Women\u2019s Law Center noted on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n \n Wage growth gains have slowed: While the pace of wage growth increased last month, it was at a slower rate than economists expected. Average hourly earnings rose by just 0.2% in June, bringing the annual growth rate to 3.7% from 3.9%.\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s some fuzzy math<\/a> to understand: The unemployment rate went down and the size of the labor force also went down \u2014 mostly because the US lost more than 1 million foreign-born workers in the last quarter. That rebalancing essentially allows the jobless rate to stay unchanged or even drop, despite an increase in the number of people out of work.\n <\/p>\n \n About those workers: Trump\u2019s policies include a large-scale immigration crackdown and targeted deportation of workers<\/a>, depriving companies of what has been a key sector of the labor force in recent years.\n <\/p>\n \n For now, the US job market continues to defy expectations. But with Trump\u2019s self-imposed July 9 deadline approaching<\/a> for key US trading partners to reach a deal on tariffs, and his signature domestic policy bill<\/a> still being debated in Congress, businesses and their workers remain frozen in a state of uncertainty.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 On the face of it, the June jobs report presents a robust picture of the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,63,99,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-42899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}