The U.S. economy added 147,000 jobs in June, once again beating expectations and defying those who were anticipating a weakening of the U.S. labor market. According to Thursday’s jobs report, the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped from 4.2 to 4.1 percent in another sign that the labor market is so far shrugging off the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s tariff policy.
Thursday’s report marks the 54th consecutive month of job growth for the U.S. economy, which has now added 29 million jobs since May 2020, when the pandemic recovery began. Looking at total nonfarm employment, the U.S. economy has now added 7.4 million jobs since February 2020, when employment had reached its pre-Covid peak of 152.3 million nonfarm payrolls.
The latest jobs data makes it even less likely that the Fed will cut rates at its upcoming July meeting. In recent statements, Fed chairman Jerome Powell had warned that him and his colleagues may soon face the difficult situation of labor market conditions and inflation worsening at the same time, the former calling for rate cuts and the latter for rate hikes. Now that the labor market remains solid, there’s even less reason for the Fed to abandon its current wait-and-see approach.
