WASHINGTON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. employers added 372,000 jobs in June amid continued labor market tightness, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 3.6 percent, slightly above the pre-pandemic level, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday.
Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care, according to the report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The June employment report showed that the labor force participation rate slightly dropped to 62.2 percent, still below the pre-pandemic level of 63.4 percent.
The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was essentially unchanged at 5.7 million in June. This measure is above its February 2020 level of 5.0 million.
In June, 2.1 million people reported that they had been unable to work because their employers closed or lost business due to the pandemic. The measure is up from 1.8 million in the previous month.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 32.08 U.S. dollars in June, the BLS report showed. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 5.1 percent.
Companies were still struggling to hire as labor market supply cannot meet demand. The number of job openings decreased by 427,000 to 11.3 million by the end of May, the BLS said earlier this week.
The June report, however, showed that the number of unemployed slightly fell to 5.9 million, indicating there were approximately 1.9 job positions for every unemployed.
As the Federal Reserve ramps up its fight against surging inflation, the strong job market may be about to take a turn for the worse.
"The further firming in the policy stance would likely result in some slowing in economic growth and tempering in labor market conditions," read the newly released minutes of the Fed's June policy meeting. ■