July 2, 2026
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.Payroll employment rose by 57 thousand in June after climbing by 129 thousand in May and 148 thousand in April. In the past three months payroll employment has risen on average by 111 thousand per month .The labor market has strengthened somewhat in recent months.
In addition to hiring workers employers can also alter the length of the workweek for their existing workers. The nonfarm workweek was unchanged in June at 34.3 hours after having been unchanged in May. The workweek has been alternating between 34.2 and 34.3 hours for the past two years. Furthermore, prior to the recession the nonfarm workweek was averaging 34.4 hours so it is currently just a snitch shorter than it was six years ago.
Job openings have fallen from a record high level of 11.7 million in early 2021 to 7.6 million. Prior to the recession there were about 7.0 million job openings per month versus 7.6 million currently. Today there are 1.0 job openings for every unemployed worker which is essentially where they were prior to the recession.
The change in employment and hours worked are reflected in the aggregate hours index which rose 0.1% in June to 116.8 after having risen 0.1% in May and 0.3% in April. This index rose 1.3% in the second quarter which, given an assumed 0.7% increase in productivity should result in GDP growth of about 2.0% in the second quarter.
Construction employment rose 11 thousand. Manufacturing employment increased by 3 thousand. Retail trade jobs declined 7 thousand. Transportation and warehousing rose 2 thousand. Info tech jobs fell 9 thousand. Financial sector jobs were unchanged.. Professional and business service sector employment rose 36 thousand. Health care jumped by 22 thousand. Jobs in social assistance rose 25 thousand. Jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry declined by 61 thousand. Government jobs rose by 8 thousand. (Federal government employment rose by 2 thousand in June.)
We expect GDP growth of 2.0% in the second quarter and 2.3% growth for the year.
Stephen Slifer
NumberNomics
Charleston, S.C.
Steve –
In the first two lines, I believe your number for the average is incorrect and should
be 356,000 rather than 234,000.
You area correct Frank. I just changed it. Employment Fridays are tough. So much data to sift through on those days. Need to digest that, write something about each tidbit, and then write the weekly commentary. Easy to miss something.
Thanks for the heads up.
Is there a way to superimpose this data with the number of layoffs over the course of the same timeframe?
I keep hearing that there are a lot more layoffs this year but I don’t know where to verify that. Thanks!
Hi Tina,
I will send you a chart on initial unemployment claims (layoffs) to your e-mail. I would include it here but somehow I cannot figure out how to get these responses to include a chart. The bottom line is that layoffs overall have been dead flat for almost two years. We keep reading about layoffs by various firms, but it appears that those folks who lose their job are easily able to find a job somewhere else.
It could be the the UAW strike is beginning to boost layoffs, but that will presumably be just a temporary jump.
I tried to send the charts to tinacartigane@gmmail.com (shown above). It came back. Changed it to gmail.com. It came back again. If you give me your email address I will resend.