The June jobs report showed signs that the U.S. labor market may be losing steam after surprisingly strong growth earlier this year, but some categories still saw big jumps in employment last month.
The biggest area for growth was health care and social assistance, with 65,200 jobs added, according to data from the Labor Department. That category expanded by more than 70,000 new positions when education is included, as some economists do.
The category was powered by 18,000 job adds in individual and family services and 15,000 in hospitals.
The other star category was government, which added 60,000 jobs. That sector has seen growth accelerate this year but is still below its pre-Covid pandemic employment level, according to the Labor Department.
The strength in those categories is a reason why more than half of the jobs added in June went to women, Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan professor and former Labor Department chief economist, said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“It tells us about where the jobs are coming from. They’re coming from the kinds of industries that women tend to work in, like health care, education services and government,” Stevenson said.
Another strong area of the labor market was construction, which added 23,000 jobs for the second straight month. The sector has proved resilient even as higher interest rates have hurt the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers.
Several sectors shed jobs in June, and they suggest that companies are still adjusting to the shift in U.S. consumer spending away from goods and toward services. Retail trade and transportation and warehousing lost about 18,000 jobs combined.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that hospitals added 15,000 jobs.
