The Employment Situation: June 1996 — 1996-07-05

Nonfarm payroll employment increased in June, and the unemployment rate decreased to 5.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of payroll jobs rose by 239,000 over the month, led by gains in the services and retail trade industries. There also were substantial gains in both average hourly earnings and the length of the workweek. The unemployment rate fell from 5.6 to 5.3 percent in June, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 388,000. The jobless rate had ranged between 5.4 and 5.8 percent from October 1994 through May of this year. The rates for adult women and whites--both 4.6 percent--dropped in June, while those for adult men (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.9 percent), blacks (10.1 percent), and Hispanics (8.8 percent) were little changed.