It’s hard to know whether this is good news or bad news, but employment growth eased in June, taking some steam out of what had been a stunningly strong labour market in the U.S.

 
The bad news is that a wobbly jobs market is bad for employees – the good news is that the Fed takes this into account when deciding on rate hikes.

The U.S. Labor Department reported an increase of 209,000 nonfarm payrolls in June, slightly below the consensus estimate of 240,000, resulting in an unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent.

This marked a considerable decline from May’s revised total of 306,000 and the slowest month for job creation since December 2020.

However, average hourly earnings exceeded expectations, rising by 0.4% for the month and 4.4% compared to a year ago.

Government jobs provided a boost, with an increase of 60,000, primarily at the state and local levels.