Daily US Times: Jobs growth in the United States picked up speed in June as the economic reopening continued, official figures show.
Last month, employers created a larger-than-expected 850,000 jobs, driven by new posts in bars and restaurants, education and retail.
Despite the boost in hiring, the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.9%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The jobs growth report comes as different industries offer incentives to battle a worker shortage.
Although the number of job vacancies has seen a record high of 9.3,, firms such as Chipotle and McDonald’s in the hospitality industry, for example, have increased the minimum wages in their company restaurants to try to entice new staff.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month after increasing 0.4% in May, the new monthly figures showed.
Although more than half of the jobs added in June were in hospitality and leisure sector, employment in those sectors is still down by about 2.2 million on pre-pandemic levels.
But President Joe Biden said the figures marked “historic progress pulling our economy out of the worst crisis in a hundred years.”
“We’ve now created over three million jobs since I took office, more jobs than have ever been created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history, thanks to the incredible work of the entire team,” he said on Friday.
And some experts said the figures suggested a economic recovery was “well underway”.
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