Dive Brief:
-
The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics released its June jobs report one day early on Thursday, which showed that the unemployment rate fell from 6.3% to 6.1%. The retail sector added 40,000 jobs.
-
That is the lowest unemployment since September 2008, and quite a surprise to many economists.
-
Job numbers for April and May were also revised up, to plus 304,000 jobs in April and plus 224,000 jobs in May.
Dive Insight:
These numbers jive with yesterday’s report from ADP and Moody’s that employment is steadily rising. That's good, if surprising, news. Employment is one of the key indicators of the state of the economy and an essential factor in retail health; after all, consumers need steady employment to feel good about opening their wallets.