The Employment Situation: June 2006 — 2006-07-07

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 121,000 in June, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment continued to trend upward in several service-providing industries and in mining. Average hourly earnings rose by 8 cents in June. The number of unemployed persons (7.0 million) was essentially unchanged in June, and the unemployment rate held at 4.6 percent. The unemployment rate for adult men declined to 4.0 percent, while the unemployment rate for teenagers edged up to 15.4 percent. Jobless rates for the other major worker groups--adult women (4.1 percent), whites (4.1 percent), blacks (9.0 percent), and Hispanics (5.3 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) The number of long-term unemployed persons--those unemployed 27 weeks or longer--fell to 1.1 million in June.