• US: The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 372,000 in June.
•  With these increases, the unemployment rate stabilized at a historically low 3.6%, barely below the pre-pandemic threshold.
• Employers continue to compete hard over a shrinking pool of new talent.

Red-hot labor demand fueled another month of robust job growth in the US defying predictions of a harsher downturn and allaying fears of an oncoming recession.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 372,000 in June, exceeding economists’ expectations of 265,000 and falling just short of the downwardly revised 384,000 jobs generated in May.

With these increases, the unemployment rate stabilized at a historically low 3.6%, barely below the pre-pandemic threshold.

Given the strength of the recovery and the fact that nearly all of the jobs lost during the epidemic had been regained, economists had largely anticipated a slowdown in monthly job creation.

Despite mounting economic fears and concerns that American consumers are beginning to tighten their spending reins as their emergency reserves shrink, the labor sector remains the bright spot of the world’s largest economy, as shown by June’s data.

Employers continue to compete hard over a shrinking pool of new talent to fill a near-record number of job opportunities in order to meet the high demand for products and services from consumers. Recent statistics indicate that there are approximately 1.9 job vacancies for every unemployed person.