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After a hot labor market in May, hiring drastically slowed in June, according to new data out Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There were 209,000 nonfarm payroll jobs added in June, less than the forecast of 225,000. June's job creation was not as great as the prior month's. May's hot job growth was revised from 339,000 to 306,000. April's growth saw another revision, from 294,000 to 217,000 per the latest news release.
After the unemployment rate soared from 3.4% in April to 3.7% in May, the rate dropped. June's unemployment rate was 3.6%, equivalent to the forecast of 3.6%.
"The June jobs report will essentially 'close the book' on the job market for the first half of the year, leaving aside future revisions of the data," Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate said ahead of Friday's report. "With everything that's been thrown at the economy, it is remarkable that jobs creation has been as solid as it has been, and that the nation's unemployment rate remains so low. But it has not been without pain, given surging job cuts."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new job openings and quits data on Thursday. Job openings tumbled from 10.3 million in April to 9.8 million in May, the most recent month of data. The rate for layoffs and discharges stayed the same low rate of 1.0% in May. While monthly quits had been just below 4 million each month from January to April, quits increased by 250,000 to 4.0 million in May.
"Rumors of the Great Resignation's demise were greatly exaggerated, at least for now," Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a statement after Thursday's data release.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
