June US Jobs Report Shows Resiliency

Career Climbers / 12th July 2016

A total of 287,000 jobs were added to the US economy in June, according to seasonally adjusted data released last Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, making it the best month since October 2015 and outpacing consensus.

The sectors leading jobs growth this month were Leisure & Hospitality (+59,000) and Healthcare & Social Assistance (+58,400), along with Information (+44,000), which was driven in large part by the cessation of a worker strike at a large telecom provider. Year-on-year total employment rose 1.7%. Weakness in the Transportation & Warehousing (-9,400) and Natural Resources and Mining (-5,000) sectors, however, partially offset these gains, and Construction could only muster a flat performance following two months of declines.

Temporary help services employment increased by 15,200 jobs in June, up 0.53%, in its largest monthly increase of 2016. The temporary penetration rate remained steady at 2.01%. Year-on-year temporary help employment was up 0.6%, with monthly job gains averaging 1,460 over the past 12 months. Upward revisions to the temporary services sector for April, from +5,000 to +9,800, and for May, from -21,000 to -19,000, boosted gains 6,800 higher than previously reported.  

“June’s relative vitality is encouraging,” said Barry Asin, President of Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). “While the longer-term trend of decelerating growth, both in total employment and in temporary help services, is still in play, bright spots such as Leisure & Hospitality and Retail Trade suggest that consumer spending is a tailwind for overall economic activity. Although too soon to dispel the possibility of contraction, the solid gains in June on the temporary services front, along with the upward revisions to previous months, are welcome developments.”

Based on the relative strength of service versus production sectors, we can infer that conditions are presently more favorable for professional versus commercial staffing.

SIA’s full July Jobs Report analysis is available here.