BLS Employment Situation: June

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate for the month of June held at 5.5%. Job growth continued an upward trend in health care, food services, and mining while employment continued to decline in construction, employment services, as well as manufacturing. According to BLS, the employment trend within the health care industry saw, over the month, a gain of 15,000 jobs, although the increase is only half the size of the average monthly gain during the prior 12 months. Specifically, employment saw growth in ambulatory health care services, adding 13,000 jobs. Since June 2007, the health care industry added 348,000 jobs. Conversely, the number of manufacturing jobs continued to decline in June with a loss of 33,000 jobs, bringing losses over the past 12 months to 353,000. Job losses were widespread throughout the industry, with notable declines in fabricated metal products (-9,000), printing and related support activities (-6,000), and wood products (-6,000). Employment in motor vehicles and parts edged up however, adding 6,000 jobs – largely reflecting the return of workers from strikes and related shutdowns. Furthermore, professional and business services employment dropped in June recording a loss of 59,000 jobs; of that amount, -39,000 occurred in temporary help services. So far this year, monthly job losses in temporary help services have averaged 26,000 compared with average declines of 7,000 per month in 2007.
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Originally posted by Candice A