EmailNonfarm payrolls added 80,000 jobs in June after adding an upwardly revised 77,000 jobs (from 69,000) in May. The Briefing.com consensus expected 100,000 new jobs in June. The gain in payrolls was in-line with the weakness reported in the initial claims levels over the past few weeks. Private payrolls added 84,000 jobs in June, down from an upwardly revised 105,000 (from 82,000) in May. Not only was the private sector job gain well below the 179,000 increase in private payrolls forecasted by the June ADP report, but it also missed the consensus’ relatively lackluster projection of 105,000 new private jobs.
While the media pundits and the market are focused on the softness in the payroll data, both average earnings growth and workweek outperformed expectations. Earnings increased 0.3% in June (consensus 0.2%) and workweek rose to 34.5 hours (consensus 34.4). As a result of the pickup in earnings and workweek, combined with the moderate rise in payrolls, aggregate wages rose 0.6%. That was the strongest gain since February when wages rose 0.8% and enough to support strong consumption growth in June. The unemployment rate remained at 8.2% in June as the number of employed and the size of the civilian labor force grew at roughly the same rate.
