U.S. Job Creation Bounced Back in June

WASHINGTON—U.S. employers added jobs at a robust pace in June, easing fears of a hiring slowdown and showing a strong labor market could propel a domestic economy facing threats from abroad.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 224,000 in June, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate last month ticked up to 3.7% in part because more Americans entered the labor force to look for a job. Wages advanced 3.1% from a year earlier, consistent with the prior month’s pace.

Hiring was stronger than expected. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a gain of 165,000 new jobs in June. They projected a 3.6% unemployment rate and 3.2% annual wage growth.

Employers have added jobs for 105 straight months, by far the longest streak of job creation on record. Updated figures showed payrolls rose by 72,000 in May and 216,000 in April, a net downward revision of 11,000. Through the first six months of the year, employers have added 172,000 jobs a month, on average.

That is a healthy rate of growth, especially 10 years into an economic expansion, when a tight labor market makes it more challenging for employers to find the workers they need—at the wages they are willing to pay. But the pace of job growth this year has slowed from 2018, when employers added an average of 223,000 jobs a month.

The slower pace of hiring is consistent with easing economic growth as the effect of tax cuts fade and global worries increase. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projected Wednesday that the economy grew at a 1.3% annual rate in the second quarter, which concluded in June. The economy grew at a 3.1% rate in the first quarter.