132,000 Jobs Added in US in June

U.S. job growth remained quite healthy in June, according to the latest report by the Labor Department. But some economists cautioned that the report contains some puzzling figures.

In its monthly jobs survey results report, the Labor Department said that the U.S. economy added 132,000 jobs in the month of June. The figure was in-line various analysts’ and economists’ forecasts of around 125,000 – 130,000 jobs. Unemployment officially stood at 4.5 percent in the month.

The big surprise in the report, however, was in the revisions for previous months’ job growth totals. The Labor Department upwardly revised figures from both May and April to add a total of 75,000 jobs across the two months. After the revision, May saw total job growth of 190,000. For the three months of the second quarter, job growth averaged 148,000 per month.

The monthly jobs report from the Labor Department is based on a survey of 400,000 businesses and 60,000 households in the U.S.

Although the report came as a pleasant surprise to economy watchers, it was not without a few red-flag contradictions. Two important sectors showed losses in June: the bellwether Retail sector lost 24,000 jobs, and 18,000 Manufacturing jobs were lost. The Construction sector saw a gain of 12,000 jobs despite pressure on homebuilders from a weakening housing market.

One expert found the numbers were so positive that he was hard pressed to explain them. Economist Ray Stone of Stone & McCarthy Research wrote to clients that “The resiliency of construction payrolls is totally unbelievable,” according to MarketWatch. Stone noted that the Labor Department report “is overstating the pulse of labor market conditions.”