The US Department of Labor reported Friday that the US added 80,000 net jobs in June, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent. US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis noted that June indicated the 28th consecutive month of private sector job growth, during which the US economy added back close to 4.4 million private sector jobs, with nearly one million jobs added just this year. About 150,000 private sector jobs have been added per month in 2012. Nonetheless, the July report was disappointingly lower than many analysts predicted.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada announced Friday that employment in June increased by 7,300 last month, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, down from 7.3 percent in May.