The U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June and the unemployment fell to 11.1%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). [1]
Data found the total number of unemployed people fell by 3.2 million to 17.88 million. Unemployment rates decline in June for adult men (10.2%); adult women (11.2%); teenagers (23.2%); African Americans (15.4%); and Hispanics (14.5%).
The number of unemployed Americans who were temporarily laid off fell by 4.8 million in June to 10.6 million. This comes after that sector of the market fell by 2.7 million in May.
However, the labor force participation rate rose by just 0.7 percentage points in June to 61.5%—1.9 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels.
Odeta Kushi, First American’s Deputy Chief Economist, said the labor market’s improvement will “likely stall out” if COVID-19 is not contained.
She noted housing has been one of the few sectors to experience a V-shaped recovery, however, said the course of recovery is dependent on the health of the labor market.
“The wages data for the last couple of months has reflected the underlying shifts in hiring for low-wage workers. The case for housing recovery is that, even if wage growth and thereby household income moderates or falls slightly, historically low mortgage rates would continue to boost house-buying power,” she said.
Realtor.com’s Chief Economist Danielle Hale said the slow reopening efforts are bringing workers back on the payroll and the market is “clearly moving in the right direction.” This direction will help consumers gain confidence in buying big-ticket items, such as homes
“So far, the housing market has been resilient, as homebuyers are looking through what may be a short-term disruption and taking advantage of lower rates to buy homes, but the potential for long-lasting recovery may be needed for housing to hold its momentum into the fall,” Hale said.
In May, the Bureau reported [2] the U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April and the unemployment skyrockets from around 4% to 14.7%.
CNN reported that this was [3] the most-sudden decline on monthly job losses since data started being tracked in 1939.
CNN adds the last time jobless was this severe was more than 80 years ago during the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate peaked at 24.9% in 1933, according to historical data by the BLS.