The US economy created 4.8 million jobs in June – a record for a month – thanks to the reopening of shops, bars and restaurants, which has led to a more substantial drop in unemployment than expected, announced Thursday the Labor Department.
The unemployment rate stood at 11.1% compared to 13.3% in May. Analysts expected a rate of 12.6%.
“These improvements reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been interrupted in March and April in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic,” said the ministry in a statement.
He adds that “employment in the leisure and hotel sectors has increased significantly”. “Significant job gains” were also recorded in the retail trade, education, health services and in the professional and commercial services sector.
However, this rate is still far from the historic low before the COVID-19 pandemic recorded in February (+ 3.5%).
In addition, the layoffs recorded in March and April were so massive that the job creations recorded in May and June still leave tens of millions of Americans unemployed.
Furthermore, it is difficult to conclude that the labor market is recovering from the shock wave caused by the COVID-19 pandemic since the data were collected during the first half of the month, that is, say before the resurgence of the pandemic in the United States.
As a sign that jobs are still struggling, new weekly claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1.427 million last week, ending on June 27. This number is higher than analysts’ projections (1,355), according to a separate press release from the Labor Department.
The number is down slightly from the previous week, but only because the figures for the previous week have been revised up to 1.482 million.
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