The June 2020 Jobs Report: What is the Current US Employment Situation?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly overview of the US employment situation and the data for June shows improvement from May after economic decline related to COVID-19. The labor department jobs report examines a range of US jobs data to gauge the overall health of the US economy, specifically the number of jobs added, the unemployment rate, and what industries are hiring now.

The June jobs report shows positive change in the labor market. Unemployment declined to 11.1% and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 4.8 million, while the number of unemployed persons declined by 3.2 million to 17.8 million. These improvements are related to a resurgence in economy activity after major coronavirus-related slowdowns in March and April.

Here are some other key statistics from the labor department jobs report:

• The number of unemployed people on temporary layoff decreased by 4.8 million to 10.6 million.
• The number of unemployed people who were jobless less than 5 weeks decreased by 1.0 million to 2.8 million. Meanwhile, the number of those jobless for 5 to 14 weeks declined by 3.3 million to 11.5 million (65.2% of the unemployed).
• The labor force participation rate increased by 0.7% to 61.5%.
• The number of people employed part time for economic reasons (AKA involuntary part-time workers) declined by 1.6 million to 9.1 million (more than double its February level).
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on nonfarm payrolls fell by $0.35 to $29.37. This decrease reflects job gains among lower-paid workers as the labor market begins to improve.

June brought job gains in many industries hiring in 2020. We saw the greatest employment change in leisure and hospitality with 2.1 million jobs added. Most of these gains came from food services and drinking places, which added 1.5 million Jobs in June. We also a saw significant increase in retail trade, education and health services, and others as normal activity began to resume. Here are the industries that were affected in June:

Overall, the labor department jobs report suggests that due to the impact of the coronavirus and efforts to contain it, the economy is improving but still in poor shape compared to our employment situation in February. To track employment numbers and the health of the economy, check back for our summary of the BLS June jobs report on August 7 2020.

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