Steady Hiring Added 147,000 Jobs to U.S. Economy in June

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U.S. job growth continued at a steady pace last month, surprising economists who had predicted a slowdown in hiring amid uncertainty over trade and fiscal policy.

The country added 147,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department reported Thursday, above the gain of 110,000 jobs economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% from 4.2%.

Revisions showed that hiring was stronger in prior months than previously thought. The number of jobs added in April and May was a combined 16,000 higher than prior estimates.

But there were caveats: Job growth was heavily concentrated in state and local government and in healthcare. A number of other sectors, including manufacturing and professional and business services, were flat or shed jobs.

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Private-sector employers added just 74,000 jobs in June, down from 137,000 in May. That was the lowest number since October 2024, after hurricanes Helene and Milton put thousands of people out of work.

The bulk of the jobs added in state and local government were in education. That was likely a fluky gain that some economists reckoned came about because the adjustment factors that the Labor Department uses to smooth seasonal swings overcompensated for shifts in education employment at the end of the school year.

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Many companies are in a “no hire, no fire” mode. They are waiting to see how tariffs, immigration and other Trump policies play out before making big decisions about employment. Inflation has been lower than some economists feared, despite the tariffs, although it is still above the Federal Reserve’s target.

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