?U.S. employers added 372,000 new jobs in June, surpassing economists’ forecasts, according to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall employment continues to close the gap with its pre-pandemic level, now just 524,000 jobs shy of where it was in February 2020. Private-sector employment has now recovered the net job losses due to the pandemic and is 140,000 jobs higher than it was pre-pandemic. Gains were broad-based, with the biggest increases reported in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and health care.
The unemployment rate held at 3.6 percent, close to what is considered full employment and near a half-century low. And while employers continue to offer higher wages to attract talent, many are unmoved: the gap between job openings and available workers remains at about two jobs for every unemployed worker.
