The unemployment rate rose very slightly to 4.4 percent in June, as the estimated size of the labor force expanded at its fastest rate (361,000) since last July (406,000). This is the third consecutive June in which the labor force estimate reversed a big change in May. Thus, despite the rise in the unemployment rate, the 245,000 net new jobs in June raised the overall employment-to-population ratio from 60.0 percent in May to 60.1 percent in June.
The establishment survey showed further evidence that last month’s seeming weakness was a little misleading. Job growth rose to 222,000 in June, and these nonfarm payroll jobs for April and May were revised up by 47,000.
Finally, average hourly wages ticked up by 4 cents in June, and 2.5 percent over the last twelve months.
Thus, people continue to return to the labor force as jobs continue to be made available. This suggests that despite low unemployment there is room for growth.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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