Transmission of material in this statement is embargoed until 

8:30 a.m. (ET) July 2, 2020. 

Statement of 

William W. Beach 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 4.8 million in 

June, and the unemployment rate declined by 2.2 percentage 

points to 11.1 percent. These improvements reflect the continued

resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March 

and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts 

to contain it. 

In June, employment continued to rise in several major 

industry sectors, with the largest gain in leisure and 

hospitality. Notable gains also occurred in retail trade, 

education and health services, other services, manufacturing, 

and professional and business services. 

To put the June employment gain of 4.8 million in context, 

substantial job losses related to the coronavirus pandemic 

started in March, as employment fell by 1.4 million. This was 

followed by deeper job cuts in April, when payroll employment 

declined by 20.8 million, as revised. By May, some pandemic-
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related restrictions on economic activity began to be lifted, 

and employment rose by 2.7 million, as revised. 

This rebound in business activity accelerated in June. 

Nevertheless, total nonfarm employment is 14.7 million, or 9.6

percent, lower than in February. Furthermore, although 

unemployment continued to fall in June, the unemployment rate 

and the number of unemployed people are up by 7.6 percentage 

points and 12.0 million, respectively, since February. 

The response rate for the household survey continued to be 

adversely affected by pandemic-related issues. The response rate 

for the establishment survey also was below normal for June. The 

impacts of the pandemic on the household and payroll surveys are 

detailed in the June Employment Situation news release and 

accompanying materials (available on the BLS website at 

www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm). For both surveys, we 

were still able to obtain estimates that meet BLS standards for 

accuracy and reliability. 

Taking a closer look at the June payroll data, employment 

in leisure and hospitality increased by 2.1 million, accounting

for about two-fifths of growth in total nonfarm employment. 

Within the industry, employment in food services and drinking 

places rose by 1.5 million. This followed an increase of the 

same magnitude in May. Despite the gains in May and June, 

employment in food services and drinking places remains 3.1 
3

million lower than in February. Employment in amusements, 

gambling, and recreation increased by 353,000 in June, and the 

accommodation industry added 239,000 jobs. 

Retail trade employment increased by 740,000 in June but is 

1.3 million lower than in February. Job growth occurred among 

all component industries in June. Notable job gains occurred in 

clothing and accessories stores (+202,000), general merchandise 

stores (+108,000), motor vehicle and parts dealers (+84,000), 

furniture and home furnishings stores (+84,000), and 

miscellaneous store retailers (+70,000). 

In June, employment in education and health services 

increased by 568,000 but is down by 1.8 million from February.

In June, health care employment rose by 358,000, with gains in 

offices of dentists (+190,000), offices of physicians (+80,000), 

offices of other health practitioners (+48,000), and outpatient 

care centers (+24,000). Elsewhere in health care, job losses 

continued in nursing care facilities (-18,000). Employment in 

social assistance increased by 117,000, with gains in child day 

care services (+80,000), individual and family services 

(+28,000), and vocational rehabilitation services (+9,000). 

Employment in private education rose by 93,000. 

Employment in the other services industry rose by 357,000 

in June, with about three-fourths of the gain occurring in 
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personal and laundry services (+264,000). Since February, 

employment in the other services industry is down by 752,000. 

Manufacturing employment increased by 356,000 in June, 

after an increase of 250,000 in May. Over the past 2 months, the 

industry has recovered less than half of the 1.4 million jobs 

lost in March and April. Most of the recent changes in 

manufacturing employment have occurred in durable goods 

manufacturing; in June, employment increased in motor vehicles 

and parts (+196,000), miscellaneous durable goods manufacturing 

(+26,000), and machinery (+18,000). Job gains in the nondurable 

goods component occurred in plastics and rubber products 

(+22,000), miscellaneous nondurable goods manufacturing 

(+16,000), and apparel (+9,000). 

In June, professional and business services added 306,000 

jobs. On net, employment in the industry is 1.8 million below 

its February level. In June, employment gains occurred in 

temporary help services (+149,000), services to buildings and 

dwellings (+53,000), and accounting and bookkeeping services 

(+18,000). Job losses occurred in computer systems design and 

related services (-20,000) and in travel arrangement and 

reservation services (-8,000). 

Construction employment rose by 158,000 in June, after 

increasing by 453,000 in the prior month. Over the past 2

months, construction has recovered more than half of the 
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cumulative job losses from March and April. In June, the 

majority of the job growth occurred in specialty trade 

contractors (+135,000), with gains about equally split between 

the nonresidential (+71,000) and residential (+64,000) 

components. Construction of buildings added 32,000 jobs over the 

month, while heavy and civil engineering construction lost jobs 

(-10,000). 

Employment in transportation and warehousing increased by 

99,000 in June, following losses of 28,000 in May and 560,000 in 

April. Over the month, notable job gains occurred in warehousing 

and storage (+61,000) and couriers and messengers (+21,000). 

In June, wholesale trade employment rose by 68,000, with 

increases in the durable goods (+39,000) and nondurable goods 

(+27,000) components. Employment in wholesale trade is 317,000 

lower than its February level. 

Employment in financial activities rose by 32,000 in June, 

with real estate adding 18,000 jobs. Since February, employment 

in financial activities is down by 237,000. 

Government employment was little changed in June (+33,000), 

following declines of 533,000 in May and 952,000 in April. In 

June, an employment gain in local government education (+70,000) 

was partially offset by losses in state government (-25,000). 

Employment in mining fell by 10,000 in June, mostly in 

support activities for mining (-7,000). The mining industry has 
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lost 123,000 jobs since a recent peak in January 2019, although 

most of this decline has occurred since February 2020. 

Average weekly hours for all private-sector workers fell by

0.2 hour in June, following an increase of 0.5 hour in May. The 

average workweek for manufacturing rose by 0.5 hour in June. 

Since estimates of average weekly hours take into account the 

size of each industry’s employment, one should continue to be 

cautious when interpreting changes in the workweek at the total 

private level. In particular, large employment changes in 

industries with shorter or longer than average workweeks can 

complicate monthly comparisons of the average weekly hours 

figures. 

Similarly, changes in average hourly earnings in recent 

months must be interpreted with caution. Average hourly earnings 

of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 35 

cents in June to $29.37, following a decrease of 31 cents in May 

and a gain of $1.34 in April. The increase in average hourly 

earnings in April largely reflects the disproportionate number 

of lower-paid workers who went off payrolls, which put upward 

pressure on the total private average hourly earnings estimate. 

Some of these workers returned to payrolls in May and June,

putting downward pressure on average hourly earnings, though the 

effect is more muted given the smaller magnitude of employment 

changes in the past 2 months. 
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Turning to the labor market indicators from the household 

survey, the unemployment rate declined by 2.2 percentage points 

to 11.1 percent in June, and the number of unemployed people 

decreased by 3.2 million to 17.8 million. Both measures have 

decreased for 2 consecutive months, although they remain much 

higher than in February (+7.6 percentage points and +12.0 

million, respectively). 

June’s unemployment decline occurred primarily among people 

on temporary layoff. There were 10.6 million people on temporary 

layoff in June, down by 4.8 million. The number of permanent job 

losers rose by 588,000 to 2.9 million. The number of unemployed 

reentrants to the labor force increased by 711,000 to 2.4 

million. (Reentrants are people who previously worked but were 

not in the labor force prior to beginning their job search.) 

In June, the unemployment rate fell for adult men (10.2 

percent), adult women (11.2 percent), teenagers (23.2 percent), 

Whites (10.1 percent), Blacks (15.4 percent), and Hispanics 

(14.5 percent). The rate for Asians (13.8 percent) was little 

changed. 

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work less than 5 weeks fell by 1.0 million to 2.8 million in 

June. The number of unemployed people who were jobless 5 to 14 

weeks decreased by 3.3 million to 11.5 million and accounted for 

65.2 percent of the unemployed. The number of people who were 
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jobless 15 to 26 weeks increased by 825,000 to 1.9 million. The 

number searching for work for 27 weeks or more rose by 227,000 

to 1.4 million. 

The labor force participation rate increased by 0.7 

percentage point in June to 61.5 percent but is 1.9 percentage 

points below its February level. Total employment, as measured 

by the household survey, rose by 4.9 million over the month to 

142.2 million. The employment-population ratio increased by 1.8 

percentage points to 54.6 percent but is 6.5 percentage points 

lower than in February.

The number of people who usually work full time and the 

number who usually work part time both increased by 2.4 million 

over the month, to 118.9 million and 23.2 million, respectively. 

In June, the number of people at work part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers) decreased by 1.6 million to 9.1 million, after little 

change in May. In June, the number of workers affected by this 

type of underemployment was more than double its February level.

The number of people not in the labor force who currently 

want a job declined by 767,000 in June to 8.2 million, following 

a decline of 954,000 in May. This measure remains 3.2 million 

higher than in February.

Among those who were not in the labor force in June but 

wanted a job, 2.5 million were considered marginally attached to 
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the labor force, little changed over the month. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not actively looked 

for work in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, 

were available for work, and had looked for a job within the 

last 12 months.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

681,000 in June, essentially unchanged over the month. 

As in March, April, and May, special instructions sent to 

household survey interviewers in June called for employed people 

absent from work due to coronavirus-related business closures to 

be classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. Again in June, 

not all such workers were so classified. However, the degree of 

misclassification declined considerably in June.

BLS and Census Bureau staff have been reviewing survey 

responses that might have been misclassified. The 

misclassification hinges on a question about the main reason 

people were absent from their jobs. If people who were absent 

due to temporary, pandemic-related closures were recorded as 

absent due to "other reasons," they could have been 

misclassified. When interviewers record a response of "other 

reasons," they also add a few words describing that other 

reason. The review of these brief descriptions found that the 

share of responses that may have been misclassified was much 

smaller in June than in prior months. BLS and the Census Bureau 
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are continuing to investigate the misclassification and are 

taking additional steps to address the issue. 

As is our usual practice, no ad hoc actions were taken to 

reassign survey responses; the data were accepted as recorded. 

If all the workers who were recorded as employed but absent from 

work due to "other reasons" (over and above the number absent 

for other reasons in a typical June) had been classified as 

unemployed on temporary layoff, the overall unemployment rate 

would have been about 1 percentage point higher than reported 

(on a not seasonally adjusted basis). Our research, which is 

ongoing, indicates that this is an upper bound on the effect of 

misclassification on the unemployment rate and probably 

overstates the size of the misclassification error. Additional 

information is available online at www.bls.gov/cps/employmentsituation-covid19-faq-june-2020.pdf. 

Summarizing the labor market developments in June, nonfarm 

payroll employment increased by 4.8 million, and the 

unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent.