According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy added 213,000 non-farm jobs in June while the unemployment rate rose to 4 percent. Jobs gains were revised up 21,000 to 244,000 in May, averaging 211,000 job gains over the last three months.
While the unemployment rate was higher than the 3.8 percent estimated by Bloomberg, the labor force participation increased from 62.7 percent in May to 62.9 percent in June. The increase in 601,000 new entrants to the labor market increased unemployment slightly.
Wages growth was noted as “not accelerating” and, thereby minimizing fear of inflationary pressures. Andrew Hunter, US economist at Capital Economics, said, “The US labor market conditions remain unusually strong.” Hunter added that strong employment and solid GDP growth are likely to result in two more interest rate increases by end of the year.