The June 2023 Jobs Report & May 2023 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

The U.S. added 209,000 jobs in June, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s June 2023 jobs report released on Friday. This marks a steep slowdown from previous months as efforts to slow inflation take root. While the job numbers were lower than expected, unemployment fell slightly to 3.6% and the number of unemployed persons also saw a slight drop to 6 million.

The May 2023 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) released Thursday showed that the number of job openings also decreased at the end of the month, to 9.8 million. The total number of separations rose to 5.9 million, with voluntary quits taking the majority of that number at 4 million and layoffs and discharges accounting for 1.6 million.

Other noteworthy statistics from the reports:

• Average hourly earnings increased by 0.4% in June and were up 4.4% from a year ago. Economists were predicting 0.3% and 4.3% increases respectively.
• The average workweek for nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours in June.
• The number of jobs added in May was revised down by 33,000 to 306,000.

When looking at what industries are hiring now, the government sector drove most of the job gains in June, with local and state governments seeing the bulk of that increase. The healthcare, social assistance, and construction industries also saw decent gains. However, a big reason for the low job numbers last month were the five industries that saw no growth, including manufacturing and information. Meanwhile, the retail trade and transportation and warehousing industries saw a decline in jobs.

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