The US labor market keeps technically winning, but it’s the kind of winning that makes you squint at the scoreboard. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 57,000 in June, extending the job-creation streak to four consecutive months. That sounds fine until you realize it’s the weakest monthly gain in that entire run, and nearly two million Americans have been sitting on the sidelines for six months or longer.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics data paints a picture of an economy that’s moving forward, just not fast enough to bring everyone along. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. Beneath that number, the long-term unemployed now account for roughly 27.3% of all jobless workers, approaching levels not seen in five years.
The numbers behind the streak
Here’s the thing about job growth streaks: they sound impressive until you look at the trajectory. April’s revised figure came in at 148,000 jobs. May was revised to 129,000. June dropped to 57,000.
Making matters worse, the BLS revised prior months’ payroll numbers downward by a combined 74,000 jobs. In English: the economy created even fewer jobs than we originally thought during the spring.
