Hiring Rebounds in June, Modest Wage Growth Still Rising Faster Than Productivity

Jobs, Skills and Training

Employers stepped up hiring in June, adding 222,000 payroll jobs while the unemployment rate ticked up to a still low 4.4 percent as schools closed and 361,000 people joined the labor market.  Importantly, there are almost 330,000 jobs waiting to be filled on WeHireAmerica.jobs, the Association's job board, and the BLS has separately reported there are a record 6.0 million job openings in the U.S.  Hourly wages continue to increase at 2.5 percent year over year, most likely held back by low productivity growth, which has averaged 0.6% over the past six years.  Employment growth has averaged 180,000 per month thus far this year, just below the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016, and down from an average of 226,000 in 2015.  In June, five industries accounted for about two-thirds of the job growth:

• Health Care (+36,500).
• Local Government (+35,000);
• Bars and Restaurants (+29,300);
• Social Assistance (+22,600); and
• Professional and Business Services (+18,800).

Most other industries reported smaller increases.  Separately, the latest ManpowerGroup "Employment Outlook Survey" found U.S. hiring prospects remain relatively stable for the third quarter of 2017, and 4th best globally.  Japan, Taiwan, and Hungary have the best third quarter hiring outlooks, while Italy, Czech Republic, and Finland have the worst.