Just 18,000 New Jobs in June Leads to Another Rise in Unemployment

by: Dean Baker, The Center for Economic and Policy Research | News Analysis

Even if job growth were to improve through the rest of 2011, it would not be enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

The Labor Department reported that the economy created just 18,000 jobs in June. It also revised down the previous two months' numbers, bringing the average rate of job growth over this period to 87,000 jobs a month. The slow job growth led to another rise in the unemployment rate, which edged up to 9.2 percent. The employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio fell to 58.2 percent, the low hit in December of 2009 and again in November in 2010. This means that the job growth thus far in the recovery has been just sufficient to keep pace with the growth of the labor force.