The Employment Situation: June 1998 — 1998-07-02

Nonfarm payroll employment rose in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment grew by 205,000, following 2 months of gains above 300,000. Job gains occurred in construction and in many service-producing industries, while employment in manufacturing fell. The number of unemployed persons increased from 5.9 to 6.2 million in June. The unemployment rate was 4.5 percent; it had been 4.3 percent in the prior 2 months. The jobless rate for whites rose by 0.3 percentage point to 4.0 percent. Unemployment rates across most of the other major demographic groups--adult men (3.7 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (14.6 percent), blacks (8.2 percent), and Hispanics (7.6 percent)--were not significantly changed from May.