U.S. employers kept up a brisk hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs in a sign of confidence despite the start of a potentially punishing trade war with China.
At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 4 per cent from 3.8 per cent, the government said Friday, as more people began looking for a job and not all of them found one.
On the same day that the Trump administration began imposing tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports and Beijing hit back with tariffs on the same amount of U.S. goods, the job gain showed that the 9-year old U.S. economic expansion – the second-longest on record – remains on firm footing.
Still, average hourly pay rose just 2.7 per cent in June from 12 months earlier, meaning that after adjusting for inflation, wages remain nearly flat. The low jobless rate has yet to force employers to offer higher wages in order to fill job openings.
One reason that some employers may not be feeling pressure to raise wages is that more people are beginning to look for work, thereby keeping up the pool of job applicants: The ranks of unemployed people seeking jobs jumped by 499,000 in June, which caused the unemployment rate to rise from its previous 18 year-low.
In this file photo, a recruiter in the shale gas industry speaks with a job fair attendee in Cheswick, Pennsylvania. The Labor Department said Friday that U.S. employers added 213,000 new jobs in June
U.S. employers kept up a brisk hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs in a sign of confidence despite the start of a potentially punishing trade war with China.
At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 4 per cent from 3.8 per cent, the government said Friday, as more people began looking for a job and not all of them found one.
On the same day that the Trump administration began imposing tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports and Beijing hit back with tariffs on the same amount of U.S. goods, the job gain showed that the 9-year old U.S. economic expansion – the second-longest on record – remains on firm footing.
Still, average hourly pay rose just 2.7 per cent in June from 12 months earlier, meaning that after adjusting for inflation, wages remain nearly flat. The low jobless rate has yet to force employers to offer higher wages in order to fill job openings.
One reason that some employers may not be feeling pressure to raise wages is that more people are beginning to look for work, thereby keeping up the pool of job applicants: The ranks of unemployed people seeking jobs jumped by 499,000 in June, which caused the unemployment rate to rise from its previous 18 year-low.
In this file photo, a recruiter in the shale gas industry speaks with a job fair attendee in Cheswick, Pennsylvania. The Labor Department said Friday that U.S. employers added 213,000 new jobs in June
