Job numbers in June continued their upward trend with sizable move of 372,000 new positions according the latest Labor Department figures. (Again, this is more than 2.0x above the 130-150,000 estimated increase needed on a monthly basis to stay-up with growing demographics). The non-seasonally adjusted construction unemployment dropped to 3.7 percent in June, consistent seasonal work and nearly matching the general unemployment percentage. [The new figure is down 0.1 basis points vs. April ‘22 level; while being down by 3.8 points from the pandemic/shutdown impacted 7.5% figure of last June+ 2021]. Overall, employment in construction had little change from May’s figures.  

The general unemployment remained at 3.6 percent for the fourth month in a row. (“Unemployed persons” was 5.9 million per the government count). The “labor force participation rate” slipped one tenth to 62.2 percent. [NOTE: The “labor force participation” rate “typically” works inversely to the overall unemployment figures. Meaning: as it deteriorates/gets worse or smaller, it actually is counted as improving unemployment (i.e., people leaving the workforce are no longer counted as unemployed by the DOL). The “employment to population ratio” experienced also experienced a slight drop down 0.2 to 59.1 percent.  Both are early signs of a potential cooling of the employment levels.  Average hourly earnings continued their long steady incremental climb, now standing at $27.45 for private sector production and nonsupervisory employees.

Workforce Statistics Chart