The U.S. added 209,000 jobs in June, just below the 230,000 projected, and the downwardly revised 306,000 in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly employment report. decreased from Job growth in May was initially announced at 339,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May, contrary to expectations of 3.7%.
Bitcoin (BTC) price rose slightly to $30.250 shortly after the report was released.
The news comes about 24 hours after the ADP’s explosive June jobs report (up 497,000 compared to an expected 220,000) was released, sending interest rates skyrocketing and bitcoin around $1,000. (more than 3%) fell.
While only slightly off the headlines, this morning’s employment report is notable for breaking an unprecedented streak of 14 straight months of better-than-expected results.
Digging deeper into the details of the report, the labor force participation rate remained flat for the fourth straight month at 62.6%. Average hourly wages rose 0.4% in June, beating expectations of 0.3%. Year-over-year, his average hourly earnings increased by 4.4%, steady from May but above his 4.2% forecast.
In addition to the downward revision of 33,000 jobs added in May, the number of jobs added in April decreased by 77,000 jobs to 217,000 jobs. In total, the revisions deducted him 110,000 jobs from his April and May reports.
There are still many economic data to be released in July, but today’s release is the final national jobs report before the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy meeting in late July. Before these latest figures, the market was priced in The central bank will almost certainly resume rate hikes at that meeting.
Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has fallen from a peak of 9.1% in 2022 to 4.0% today, but is still well above the Fed’s 2% target. Moreover, core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, was even stronger, now at 5.3%, a much more modest decline from last year’s peak of 6.6%.
The central bank has made it clear that a further weakness in the employment situation is necessary to keep inflation under control, but at the moment the employment situation remains strong. It remains to be seen if today’s softening in employment numbers is the start of a trend.
