More than 1.8 million new jobs were created last month, leading to the lowest unemployment rate since March.
These are the latest figures released by the Department of Labor, which additionally notes that the nation’s total unemployment rate had fallen to 10.2 percent, down from nearly 15 percent in April.
The latest figures were hailed in a press release from the Council of Economic Advisers which said “The United States recovery has now added 9.3 million new jobs in the past 3 months, beating market expectations by a combined 12 million.”
Despite the good numbers, the latest Labor Department report also shows that the country has roughly 13 million fewer jobs than it did earlier this year, when the unemployment rate had reached an historic low of 3.5 percent.
Regionally, the latest figures put the states of the West in the middle to high range in terms of joblessness, with New Mexico showing am 8.2 percent unemployment rate. Arizona came in at 10.4 percent, while Colorado recorded a 10.5 percent jobless rate.
The state with the lowest unemployment rate was Kentucky at 4.3 percent, while Massachusetts saw the highest rate, at 17.4 percent.
Overall, of the ten states with the highest unemployment rates, ranging from 12.5 percent to 17.4 percent, seven were in the East and Midwest.
The new national numbers reveal certain areas of weakness, notes the publication Forbes, observing that the 10.2 percent unemployment rate is still “worse than the nadir during the Great Recession,” while “the job growth rate has significantly slowed and, without fiscal stimulus, could fall even further.”
The greatest job growth came in the healthcare, hospitality, government, and retail sectors. Although the construction industry gained 20,000 new jobs, this was well below the combined May and June totals of some 619,000.
By Garry Boulard
