Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. 

Statement of 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, July 8, 2016

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 287,000 in June, 

after changing little in May (+11,000). The unemployment rate 

rose to 4.9 percent in June. Job gains occurred in leisure and 

hospitality, health care and social assistance, and financial 

activities. Employment in information also increased, largely 

due to the return of workers from a strike. 

 Incorporating revisions for April and May, which reduced 

nonfarm payroll employment by 6,000 on net, monthly job gains 

have averaged 147,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months 

prior to June, employment growth averaged 199,000 per month. 

 In June, employment in leisure and hospitality rose by 

59,000, after changing little in the prior month. Employment 

rose in performing arts and spectator sports in June (+14,000), 

after edging down in May. Employment changed little in food 

services and drinking places in June (+22,000). Job gains in 

leisure and hospitality have averaged 27,000 per month in the 
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first half of the year, down from an average of 37,000 per month 

in 2015, reflecting slower job growth in food services and 

drinking places. 

 Employment in health care and social assistance increased 

by 58,000 in June. Health care added 39,000 jobs over the month, 

with gains in ambulatory health care services (+19,000) and 

hospitals (+15,000). Within social assistance, child day care 

services added 15,000 jobs. 

 Employment in financial activities grew by 16,000 in June, 

in line with recent job growth in the industry. 

 Information employment rose by 44,000 in June. Employment 

rose in telecommunications (+28,000), largely reflecting the 

return of workers from a strike. Motion picture and sound 

recording industries added 11,000 jobs over the month, following 

a loss of similar magnitude in May. 

 Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up in June (+38,000). Thus far this year, the industry 

has added an average of 30,000 jobs per month, compared with an 

average monthly gain of 52,000 in 2015. 

 Retail trade employment edged up by 30,000 in June, 

following 2 months of essentially no employment growth. In June, 

job gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+9,000) and in 

health and personal care stores (+5,000). Employment in retail 

trade has increased by 313,000 over the year. 
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 Mining employment continued to trend down in June 

(-6,000). The industry has lost 211,000 jobs since the recent 

peak in September 2014. Three-fourths of the job losses over 

this period have been in support activities for mining. 

 Average hourly earnings of all employees on private 

nonfarm payrolls edged up by 2 cents in June to $25.61. Over the 

past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.6 

percent. From May 2015 to May 2016, the Consumer Price Index for 

All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.1 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

 Turning now to data from our survey of households, the 

number of unemployed persons rose by 347,000 to 7.8 million in 

June, and the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage 

point to 4.9 percent. These increases largely offset declines in 

the prior month, and bring both measures back in line with 

levels that had prevailed since August 2015. 

 The number of long-term unemployed--those who had been 

looking for work for 27 weeks or more--changed little in June, 

at 2.0 million. These individuals accounted for 25.8 percent of 

the unemployed. 

 Both the labor force participation rate (62.7 percent) and 

the employment-population ratio (59.6 percent) were little 

changed over the month. 
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 Among the employed, the number of individuals working part 

time for economic reasons declined by 587,000 to 5.8 million in 

June, offsetting an increase in the prior month. (These 

individuals, also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, 

would have preferred full-time employment but were working part 

time because their hours had been cut back or because they were 

unable to find full-time work.) 

 Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in June, 1.8 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, little different than a year earlier. The 

number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 

502,000 in June, down by 151,000 from a year earlier. (The 

marginally attached are individuals who had not 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.) 

 In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 287,000 in 

June, and the unemployment rate increased to 4.9 percent.